Belgrade , 26 November The annual assembly of the 49 NOCs of Europe began today in the presence of IOC president Jacques Rogge, Serbian prime minister Mirko Cvetkovic and minister for youth and sport Snežana Samardžic Markovic. Before commencement of works, chaired by president Patrick Hickey, the EOC Order of Merit was posthumously remitted to Piotr Nurowski.

Piotr Nurowski, who was president of the Polish NOC and member of the EOC EC, was among the victims of the tragic air crash last April that cost the lives of the president of the Polish Republic and his entourage on their way to Russia.

His widow Elisabeth and two daughters received the distinction comforted by the warmth of the European Olympic Family gathered in Belgrade, where they are hosted by the president of the Serbian NOC Vlade Divac and his team on occasion of the celebration for 100 years of Olympism in Serbia.

Until tomorrow, the 300 participants will be hearing reports on the institutional activities of the association and a number of current issues.

Another important event that took place was the election of the two EOC representatives, Vlade Divac (SRB) and Roger Talermo (FIN), who will sit on the Executive Board of ANOC, the world association of NOCs till 2014, along with president Patrick Hickey, vice president Alexander Kozlovsky and secretary general Raffaele Pagnozzi.

As always, the annual EOC Assembly has drawn representatives from a great many organisations linked to Olympic sport; first and foremost the organisers of the London 2012 and Sochi 2014 Olympic Games, but also the cities for the upcoming EYOFs (Liberec and Trabzon 2011, Brasov and Utrecht 2013) together with the candidates for the organisation of the winter and summer 2015 EYOFs, whose fate will be decided here in Belgrade tomorrow morning.

This year, the candidate cities for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games Munich, Annecy, PyeongChang have been invited to give Europe a final report before the July vote at the IOC Session in Durban.