Newly appointed President of the European Health and Fitness Association (EHFA) Harm Tegelaars has called for greater representation in Brussels to ensure the fitness industry is given the role it deserves in tackling health and obesity problems in Europe.

Speaking at LIW he said: “Like every national European government, Brussels is battling its own obesity mountain- and one that is growing exponentially.

“…We know Brussels has earmarked a multi-million Euro budget to address the community’s public health issue … a problem caused in part, many would say, by the food industry and the great irony is that they receive subsidies of around 43bn euro while we, a sector with the skills, the resources and the capability to help solve the problem have not yet received any support.”

Throughout his speech, Tegelaars reiterated the fact that Brussels has been and is still allocating multi-million Euros to get “…more Europeans, more active, more often…” However the European fitness sector has yet not been a beneficiary of this funding. His speech included an advert, developed by the EU in partnership with UEFA which will be broadcast during every one of the 125 Champions League matches and reach between 80-100 million people.

“The strategy is absolutely perfect: broadcast an amusing advert, which parodies the irony of overweight sedentary men watching some of the fittest men in Europe playing football.

“But the question is, where is the joined up thinking? What is the real call to action? The industry should be working with the organisation which invested millions in commissioning and airing that advert and persuade them that we should have been at the table to provide the call to action.

“Raising awareness of the issue is only half the job. Giving governments other options to help solve the problem is the other half.”

Tegelaars closed with an impassioned call to the European industry and its leaders. “As an industry, we have one common thread which holds us all together, whether we live and work in Barcelona, Berlin, Birmingham or Bologna. Working together we can help solve a major European (public health) problem by getting more people, more active more often.

“As an industry we have got the expertise to help solve this crisis, the track record to underpin this confidence, the right team to go represent the industry and help it win funding.”