Azerbaijan organized European Games at highest standards – Hungarian minister

Azerbaijan has organized the first European Games at the highest standards, Minister of Human Capacities of Hungary Zoltán Balog told Trend June 27.

“I wanted to come to Azerbaijan for a long time,” he said, adding that until now he had no possibility to visit the country but the European Games became a very good opportunity for that.

“Hungary is a sport nation; this is a part of our identity,” he said.

He went on to add that he is not surprised that Azerbaijan managed to organize the European Games because he knows Azerbaijani people, government, and energy.

The minister said he is impressed by organization of the European Games, transport, infrastructure, technical management, accommodation, adding that all these things are on the highest standards.

The minister said that during his visit to Azerbaijan, he met with Minister of Youth and Sports Azad Rahimov, Education Minister Mikayil Jabbarov, Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfas Garayev.

“Hungary this year will provide scholarships for free education to 200 students from Azerbaijan,” he said. “Over the past three years, our relations in all fields entered an entirely new phase. I hope for the stronger cooperation in the future.”

Commenting on the possibility of resuming the activities of the Hungarian airline Wizz Air in Azerbaijan, the minister said that Hungary supports the resumption of flights of the airline in Azerbaijan.

“We need direct flights between Baku and Budapest,” he said. “Negotiations are underway now in this direction. I look forward to their successful finish,” he said.

The European Games kicked off in Baku June 12 and wrapped up on June 28. Baku 2015 First European Games hosted 20 sports – 16 Olympic and four non-Olympic sports.

More than 6,000 athletes from across Europe came to Baku to represent their nations over 17 days of competition. Baku was awarded the games by the European Olympic Committees (EOC) in December 2012.

/By Trend/