European Games Find 2019 Host

A man walks past the Belarus' Olympic Committee building in Minsk on July 18, 2016. The International Canoe Federation has banned athletes from Belarus for a year from all International competitions including the Rio Olympics for violating anti-doping rules. / AFP / Sergei Gapon (Photo credit should read SERGEI GAPON/AFP/Getty Images)

(ATR) The countdown to the 2019 European Games is underway in Minsk.

Amid some calls to delay the decision, members of the European Olympic Committees voted Friday to award the event to the Belarus capital. Meeting in Minsk, the EOC could not rebuff Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, who offered to take on the Games during his speech to the opening of the annual general assembly.

"You can count on Belarus," said Lukashenko, who is also the titular leader of the Belarus NOC.

With less than three years to go to the second edition of the European Games, delegates took the offer from Lukashenko, The decision ostensibly allows preparations to begin, even though no detailed plans are available to follow.

Denmark led an effort to delay the decision, saying some time was needed for the European NOCs to understand both the concept and financing of the event.

"We wanted to establish a working group to get into the details of the plans," Norwegian NOC secretary general Inge Andersen tells Around the Rings.

Norway remained opposed to the Minsk decision, even against the tide of support for settling the issue.

"The no vote from Norway in the second and final round of voting came because there seems to be quite a distance between the recommendations in the Olympic Agenda 2020 regarding Olympic bid processes and the process we witnessed on the European Games 2019," said Andersen.

Olympic Agenda 2020 recommendations that affect bidding and hosting of events include sustainability, transparency and respect of human rights.

"But we fully respect the democratic decision from the EOC general assembly," says Andersen.

The European Games are still in their infancy after a debut in 2015 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The initial games presented 20 sports with athletes from the 50 National Olympic Committees of the EOC. The Netherlands had agreed to host the 2019 games, but backed out in 2015. Since then the EOC has been stuck without an alternative, until Russia agreed to make a bid. But the intervening scandal involving the Russian anti-doping system ended those plans.

Now it’s Minsk for 2019.

The choice of Minsk will come with baggage for the EOC. The pace of preparations will be rushed for both the organizing committee and NOCs. Given the time constraints, it may be planning on the run. Politically, Belarus will attract attention over its Soviet-style governance and philosophies as well as human rights issues.

Written by Ed Hula.