site.btaJune 17, 1978: Ninth General Assembly of European National Olympic Committees Opens in Sofia

On June 17, 1978, the two-day Ninth General Assembly of the Association of European National Olympic Committees (AENOC) was officially opened in Sofia. The forum was held in the congress hall of the Moscow Park Hotel under the slogan “For European Sports Cooperation.” Delegates from the Olympic committees of 30 European countries participated in the Assembly. The Bulgarian Olympic Committee (BOC) was represented by its chairman, Colonel General Vladimir Stoychev, commander of the First Bulgarian Army during World War II. The Ninth General Assembly of the AENOC was also attended by the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Lord Killanin of Ireland, and the president of the AENOC Executive Committee, Bo Bengtson of Sweden.

During the two-day event, issues related to the Olympic movement were discussed, including the organization and preparation for the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow, USSR, and the Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, USA, in 1980, cooperation between UNESCO and the Olympic movement, government support for mass sports, and sport as a tool for peaceful coexistence and cooperation in the context of the European Conference in Helsinki (1975).