EOC General Assembly in Lisbon

The 38th   General Assembly of European Olympic Committees took place in Lisbon (Portugal). Among the participants were: the representatives of 49 NOCs, the delegations of organizing committees of Olympic Games in Vancouver, London, Sochi and Rio de Janeiro, as well as I Junior Olympic Games – Summer 2010 in Singapore and Winter 2012 in Innsbruck and providers of European Junior Olympic Festivals 2009-2013. The EOC Assembly in Lisbon was coincided with the 100th anniversary of NOC Portugal.
NOC Vice President Gennady Alekseenko and the Secretary General George Katulin took the lead in the NOC Belarus delegation at the Assembly.
NOC Vise President presented Patrick Hikki with the Order of  NOC Belarus and mentioned in his speech a great merit of EOC President in the development of Olympic movement in Belarus.
IOC President Jacques Rogge took part at the Opening Ceremony of the Assembly. He mentioned a great contribution of Portugal to the development of European and International Olympic movement. Talking about the coming I Junior Olympic Games in Singapore, Jacques Rogge pointed out that this event can not be called mini-Olympic Games. “The Games are certainly rooted in elite sport” he noted. “But the educational component of the Games is much more important than sporting”.
Great attention was centered on the speech of the EOC President Patrick Hikki who defined the objectives of the EOC activity for the following four years. Among the top-priority goals he mentioned the development of European Junior Olympic Festivals, cooperation with the European Union and perfection of the EOC marketing programs. But EOC’s primary objective for the following four years is the establishment of European Games.
During the Conference the presentation of International UNESCO program “Child’s and juvenile forum “Olympic friendship” took place. Hundreds of children in Vancouver will take part in the Festival “Olympic Friendship”, which is to be held together with the Olympic Games. Outstanding champions, world-famous figures of culture and sport call together groups of children making teams for “Olympic Friendship”.
The 38th EOC Assembly was the meeting to hear reports and elect new officials. Due to the fact that there were one candidate for each position (the President, the Vice-president, the Secretary General and the Treasure Patrick Hikki (Ireland), Alexander Kozlowski (Russia), Raphael Panjozzi (Italy) and Kiis Lazaridis (Cyprus) maintained their positions.
At the same time there were 18 candidates for 12 positions in EOC Executive Committee. Among those who got support were the representatives of Turkey, Spain, Belgium, Slovenia, Croatia, Rumania, Greece, Poland, Great Britain, Israel, Germany, and Portugal.
The following EOC General Assembly will take place in Belgrade.