Romania to organise 2013 European Youth Olympic Festival

During the meeting, the local authorities unveiled several objectives scheduled to be completed in the period immediately ahead, for which they asked for the Government's support.

The support will consist in co-funding part of the infrastructure required to stage the 2013 Festival, that afterwards will be managed by the local authorities.

The costs incurred by staging the European Youth Olympic Festival in 2013 are put at more than 80 million euros, with half the amount to be borne by the Tourism Ministry. The first funds to be received by the local authorities in order to begin building the tourist infrastructure are the ones already earmarked in this year's budget, namely six million euros for the project dubbed Skiing in the Carpathians.

Youth and Sport Minister Monica Iacob Ridzi stressed her ministry will also get involved in backing the development of sport-related infrastructure for the 2013 Festival. Romanian athletes will begin training as early as this year, by Romania's participation the current edition of the Festival held in Poland, she announced.