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The Objective of the European Capital of Sports Award is an ethical commitment conscious of the social function that sport has as linking factor between the physical wellbeing of individuals, the general improvement in their quality of life and the harmonious integration of society. The European Capital of Sports Award is an incentive for local administrations and their sport departments to fulfil a fundamental and decisive role in the making of the fabric that contributes to improving the general level of health of the inhabitants in a country, through the culture of healthy and physical exercise. Its tasks consist in the formulation of sport policies for the development of infrastructures and management models that favour sport to facilitate the development of social integration processes of the more disadvantaged groups of society: the disabled, the elderly, teenagers in risk situations and migrants. The cities that have been awarded the European Capital of Sports title are positive and ethical examples of social policy that needs to be implemented in other contexts; its strategies, concept and programmes duplicated. In this way, the European Capital Cities of Sports will become part of a more complex European model that aims to protect its inhabitants and improve its cities. This is an undertaking which, endorsed by many European cities as a common project, takes on the character of an institutional ethical responsibility. | Gian Francesco Lupattelli | Chairman ACES |