Travelling from Madrid where they participated in the ANOC Executive Council meeting, EOC Acting President Janez Kocijancic and Secretary General Raffaele Pagnozzi attended the annual Olympic Solidarity Commission held on  April 11, in the city of Barcelona – on the occasion of the commemorating events for 25^th  Barcelona Olympic Games, which are being organized by the Spanish Olympic Committee together with the Barcelona and Cataluña authorities, ​​and whose culmination will take place next 25 July , date of the 1992 Games Opening Ceremony.

OS commission president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, who is also President of the World Association of NOCs (ANOC), directed the proceedings of the group – which includes for Europe ANOC Secretary General Gunilla Lindberg (SWE), Tony Estanguet (FRA), Le Grand-Duc Henri de Luxembourg, Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr (ESP), and Raffaele Pagnozzi (ITA), as well as Director Pere Miró.

The different continental solidarity associations reported on their actions during the last Olympic period.

The IOC Olympic Solidarity’s mission is to organize assistance to the national Olympic committees, particularly those who need the most, through different programs focused mainly on the development of athletes, coaches and sports administrators and the promotion of Olympic values.

In connection with this work on the dissemination of Olympic values, the president of the NOC of Spain Alejandro Blanco reported on a project launched with the Spanish Centre for Refugee Assistance (CEAR), the main objective of which is the integration of refugees living in the Spain into Spanish society through sport. The program includes sports and educational development, providing sports equipment and providing an equipped sports area in the centre of Madrid. CEAR serves more than 15 thousand refugees.

Olympic Solidarity supports the national Olympic committees through three lines of action, one of a global character focused on helping the development of sports coaches, managers and the promotion of Olympic values, a second through what are called programs, and a third dedicated to subsidizing the participation of athletes in the Olympic Games.

To implement the programs mentioned above, Olympic Solidarity has a budget for the period 2017-2020 of more than 500 million dollars, 10% higher than the one that was available for the period 2013-2016.