Alexander Zhukov, summed up the EOC General Assembly held in Rome

The importance of the 42d  General Assembly of the European Olympic Committees held in Rome is difficult to overestimate . First of all,  the organization’s leaders were elected . Patrick Hickey became the President of the EOC once again. We are pleased that the Honorary Vice-President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Alexander Kozlovsky has entered the executive board.

Secondly, this General Assembly has attracted special attention of the International Olympic Committee. The IOC President Thomas Bach and the Honorary President Jacques Rogge arrived in Rome. More than 30 members of the IOC took part in the Assembly.

It was interesting to listen to the speech delivered by Bach. He brought up major issues  in it. The IOC President outlined his vision of how the Olympic Movement should develop and spoke about the main existing problems. He also spoke about the preparedness of Sochi for the Olympics. In the kindest words he described his last visit to Sochi and the facilities’ readiness for the Games . He paid special attention to the fight against doping , which is, in his opinion, one of the main concerns of the international Olympic movement. In this connection, he called on all  presidents of the Olympic Committees of Europe and of the world to focus on this topic, having noted that one doping scandal could cancel all the successes of any country at the Olympics.

In addition, some very interesting presentations were made at the Assembly, including the presentation of the first European Games to be held in 2015 in Baku. The capital of Azerbaijan is almost ready for these games –  new stadiums are built. Thus we can assume that the I European games will be successful . Not all sports have been presented in the program so far, but there we will be able to see the sports that are not included in the Olympic program, such as beach soccer , karate and others.

And I am very pleased that the achievements of the Russian Olympic Committee in the field of  promoting the Olympic values were highlighted. Personal award for the long-term contribution to the development of the Youth Olympic Festivals and the Youth Olympic Games was presented to the permanent head of the Russian delegation at the Youth Festivals and Games and the Head of the ROC Department for Cooperation with the All-Russian sports federations  Valery Kuvaev.

The ROC President and the member of the IOC
Alexander Zhukov