The Municipal Council will Officially Support Sofia's Bid for the Winter Olympics

With a highly edited statement, the City Council will probably support the efforts of the Sports Ministry to raise Sofia's bid to host the Youth Olympic Games in 2024 and to modernize the sports facilities needed for the forum. At the moment the ministry's efforts to replace the facilities are undergoing a change in the management plan of the Vitosha Park.

The text of the declaration was voted on Thursday by the special municipal commission on the problems of Vitosha Park. The statement itself was proposed by the IMRO Municipal Councilor Carlos Contrera and must be voted on by all advisers.

The final version of the statement is severely curtailed in comparison with the initial intentions of the municipality to engage the municipality on this issue. Initially, the municipality urged local authorities to engage in a possible Olympics by oblige Mayor Yordanka Fandakova to support the proposals to change the management plan of Vitosha Park, made by a working group to the Minister of Sport Krasen Kralev. They allow the construction of facilities on almost the entire territory of Vitosha Park, while representatives of the Ministry of the Environment did not participate in their preparation.

Contrera wanted broad political support for this report to bring it. However, such a decision is no longer that such a solution is also a serious image issue for the Mayor and the ruling Sofia GERB party.

Consequently, Contrera's idea evolved into a statement in support of the Youth Olympics nomination and the changes to the park management plan. Its original text was also edited and severely shortened, but still contained a sentence related to the Vitosha management plan. At the meeting of the Temporary Committee on Mountain Affairs on Thursday, the...