Interview: Finnish sports programme to energise nation[fr][de] 

The programme is designed to increase the number of physically active citizens and to facilitate coordination between different government sectors and sports organisations involved in providing sports services, according to Mattila. 

"Compared to other European countries, Finns are quite active, but we think that there is still much to be done in relation to their health and well-being, and also concerning the role the voluntary sector could play," she said.

The programme will be based on twelve general aims, with concrete implementation measures proposed for each, Mattila said. The first four packages outline the lifespan approach intended to encourage citizens to adopt a physically active lifestyle from an early age and to continue to be active throughout their lifetimes, she said.

In addition, the strategy aims to improve cooperation between government sectors and to achieve more professionalism and efficiency in all sports provision, including activities organised by civic organisations, Mattila explained. "We need better educated professionals," she stated, despite acknowledging the value of having traditionally strong voluntary forces organising sports at club level.

According to Mattila, the municipality is the government level which is primarily responsible for sports provision in Finland. "We are encouraging them to have a wider approach and continue to support them on sport," she said, before acknowledging that the financial challenges faced by many of them today will make this difficult.

The programme is mainly a principle-based decision, without any binding financial implications as such. The Finnish sports budget is based mainly on lottery revenue and is thus determined more or less automatically, Mattila explained. But there are other sectors, such as physical education in schools, where "we can try to get more impact," she said.

Although the programme has not yet been adopted, the debate in the working group set up to draft the programme is bearing fruit, as some of the proposals are already underway, Mattila said. She claimed that there was a "positive attitude to go further" as many ministries with a potential impact on citizen activity participated in the negotiations.

Finland's Education Minister Sari Sarkomaa has already announced that she will investigate the possibility of adding an extra hour of physical education to the school curriculum the next time it is revised, Mattila said.

Mattila added that Finland had also been active in developing the role of the EU in sports and health, and was involved in the Commission working group drafting the physical activity guidelines. She said that the guidelines did not offer anything particularly new for Finland as most of the ideas in the EU draft proposal had already been implemented there. "But we are very happy that this kind of guidelines has been drafted for the whole of Europe," she concluded.

To read the interview in full, please click here.