Rome 30th November 2017 – Invited to Belarus by Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus and also of the National Olympic Committee, yesterday newly elected EOC President Janez Kocijančič met with the leader of the hosting nation of the second edition of the European Games in Minsk in 2019 to discuss progress in preparations.

At their meeting Lukashenko told Kocijančič that Minsk 2019 has the full support of the Olympic Movement of Belarus, the whole of the population, and of course the government. For his part, Kocijančič said that he is fully confident that the organisation and staging of the event will be of the highest standard, given Belarus’s excellent track record in organising major sports events, and the positive feedback he has received from the EOC Minsk 2019 Coordination Commission, and also from the team of experts the EOC has appointed to assist the Organising Committee in their tasks, and who report regularly.

Preparations are indeed progressing apace, and are on track with the master plan for the event, with the Organising Committee progressively hiring new staff to cover all the areas that need to be addressed, including communications with the NOCs of Europe, for which the Minsk 2019 website is now up and running, as well as social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and VK.

Minsk benefits from the advantage of not needing any additional venues, all the necessary infrastructure being in place, top quality and in perfect condition; and the sports programme has been modelled accordingly, this in line with the EOC’s decision to follow Agenda 2020 guidelines on the minimisation of environmental footprint for major sports events. This policy will also be applied to future European Games and also EYOFs.