Rome, 6th December – delegations from the 49 members of the EOC are about to reach the Italian capital were the EOC will be holding its annual General Assembly.

IOC president Jacques Rogge, many IOC members, the presidents and secretaries general of the NOCs of Europe, together with representatives from many Olympic and sports organisations who join the EOC on these occasions, have been invited by EOC President Hickey and EOC and CONI secretary general Pagnozzi to join them at the CONI headquarters, where the event will be hosted.

Meetings will commence Friday afternoon and will continue all day Saturday. And this will be meeting that, institutional matters aside, will be called upon to decide on the idea of a European Games, a proposal launched in 2010. The Assembly will also elect the winner of the 2nd Piotr Nurowski Prize for the best European young athlete, out of a list of five nominees that are all highly talented young athletes.

Originally due to take place in Eilat, Israel, for which the Israeli NOC had invested a great deal of time and energy in preparations for the hosting of the 41st EOC General Assembly and the 4th EOC Executive Committee meeting of the year, the events were transferred Rome, where the EOC headquarters are, once it became clear that tension in the region had begun to mount dangerously.

EOC and CONI secretary general Raffaele Pagnozzi and his Italian and European secretariats, have buckled down to the task of getting everything ready in time. And so, it’s all roads lead to Rome, and a warm welcome to our Olympic friends!