Foreign

Home page

Foreign

Baku hosts 18th Council of Europe Informal Conference of Ministers responsible for Sport

22 September 2010 11:07 (UTC +04:00)

Apasport.az website reports that the ministers responsible for sport meet every two years. The meeting taking place in the Gulustan Palace aims to discuss the important sport matters of the European countries.

Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni, Director General of Education, Culture and Heritage, Youth and Sport of the Council of Europe, Patrick Hickey, President of the European Olympic Committee, head of Sport Akkord organization, Vice-President and Secretary General of the European Fair Play Movement and heads of about ten sport organizations are attending the conference.

Declaring the conference open Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni gave the floor to Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Elchin Afandiyev. He underlined that sport was developing in Azerbaijan, that sphere was cared on the highest level.

The vide message of Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, was screened, Dime Spasov, Director of the Agency of youth and sport, representative of the Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Cecilia Keaveney, Chairperson of the Sub-Committee on Youth and Sport of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, Predrag Manojlovic, Chair of the Consultative Committee of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) addressed the conference. Following this, a briefing was held for media representatives. Azerbaijanâ€™s Youth and Sport Minister Azad Rahimov and Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni answered journalistsâ€™ questions.

Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni said it was the first time Azerbaijan was hosting the Council of Europe conference on sport.
â€œWith great pleasure we listened to Azerbaijanâ€™s Deputy Prime Minister, who spoke about Azerbaijanâ€™s achievements in the country and international arena. One of our goals in coming here is to witness the significant activities carried out by Azerbaijanâ€™s Ministry of Youth and Sport, familiarize ourselves with the infrastructure,â€ she said.

She particularly noted that the significance of Azerbaijanâ€™s role was increasing in the international arena.
â€œToday at the conference attended by sport ministers and representatives from 47 Council of Europe member states we are going to discuss the concept we call legal certainty. We will discuss match fixing, anti-doping policy, violence in sport. Moreover, we will discuss the issues related to the granting of visas to athletes attending the competitions. All these issues are of great importance for ensuring fairness and transparency in sport. Corruption must be prevented in sport,â€ she said.

Azad Rahimov said the issues discussed at the conference were important for Azerbaijan.
â€œAs you know football sweepstakes will be launched in Azerbaijan soon. The experience of Europe is very important for us. Moreover, the issue of doping is very important for us. We are concern over the related issues in the Weightlifting Federation. We would like the promotion to be strengthened, control to be increased in this field,â€ he said.

Minister also expressed his concern over the visa problem of our sportsmen.
â€œAs you know, our sportsmen face difficulties in getting visas. Therefore, they can not reach the international competitions in time. I am glad that the issues important for Azerbaijan have been included into the agenda,â€ he said.

â€œPromotion of the integrity of sport against manipulations of results (match fixing)â€ will be discussed in the first part of the conference, â€œCurrent issues of the Pan-European sports cooperationâ€ will be discussed in the second part. The issues related to the granting of visas to athletes, prevention of usage of doping, cooperation between the European Union and Council of Europe, the monitoring of the Anti-doping Convention, convention to combat spectator violence will also be discussed at the conference.