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A:
Kosovo not to get membership in IOC
Belgrade/Kranj,
17 March 2008
Serbian Minister of Youth and Sports Snezana Samardzic-Markovic said today that she was assured by the officials of the European Olympic Committee (EOC) that Kosovo will not get membership in this organisation nor in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as long as it is not a member of the UN.
Samardzic-Markovic told the Beta news agency that the so-called state of Kosovo will not be granted membership in EOC or IOC nor will it participate in the Olympic Games as long as the UN recognises Kosovo, which is the main criterion for acceptance of sports associations in IOC.
Samardzic-Markovic, who is participating in an informal meeting of sports ministers of the EU and Western Balkan region at Brdo Pri Kranju, said that the situation is different when it comes to branch sports organisations. According to her, associations decide individually on the membership, but for Serbia it is very important that EOC whose president Patrick Hickey attended the meeting has that firm position.
She also added that the meeting discussed relations of the state and NGOs, ways to see sport as an economic category, problems with violence and anti-doping fight.
It is very good that we participated in this meeting as we must constantly keep track with European trends and we must be ready to respond to them, said Samardzic-Markovic.
The sports ministers said that boycotting this year’s Olympic Games in Beijing, following the reaction of Chinese authorities in Tibet, would not be a good solution, the Minister said.
The meeting in Slovenia was also attended by EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Training and Multilingualism Jan Figel, representatives of national Olympic committees, including Ivan Curkovic and Predrag Manojlovic from the Serbian Olympic Committee.
Samardzic-Markovic, who is participating in an informal meeting of sports ministers of the EU and Western Balkan region at Brdo Pri Kranju, said that the situation is different when it comes to branch sports organisations. According to her, associations decide individually on the membership, but for Serbia it is very important that EOC whose president Patrick Hickey attended the meeting has that firm position.
She also added that the meeting discussed relations of the state and NGOs, ways to see sport as an economic category, problems with violence and anti-doping fight.
It is very good that we participated in this meeting as we must constantly keep track with European trends and we must be ready to respond to them, said Samardzic-Markovic.
The sports ministers said that boycotting this year’s Olympic Games in Beijing, following the reaction of Chinese authorities in Tibet, would not be a good solution, the Minister said.
The meeting in Slovenia was also attended by EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Training and Multilingualism Jan Figel, representatives of national Olympic committees, including Ivan Curkovic and Predrag Manojlovic from the Serbian Olympic Committee.
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