The work of the congress began with good news: the federation was replenished with a new participant – Portugal. For full membership, the Portuguese Armwrestling Federation is required to provide the package of documents within a month.
Also during the congress, the results of work for 2016-2017 were summed up. Speaking to the participants of the congress, EAF President Assen Hadjitodorov noted that the last season was very successful for the federation: "We held many competitions, e.g. an excellent European Championship in Romania, as well as a small challenge from Slovakia, which refused to host the 2017 European Championships, therefore Polish federation took it. I hope, further we will work together for the development of arm-wrestling in Europe".
Assessing the work of the referee panel for the past year, the head referee of the European Federation David Shead noticed: "Last season there were a lot of protests and the collegium did not like it very much. We took measures to return a good level of refereeing and introduced the professional training of the referee, the results of which you can see at this championship".
The same word was given to the representative of Belgium, Jean-Frederic Andre, responsible for working with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA): "Last year at the European Championships we had four positive tests and we had to work in extreme conditions. This time, we will do our best for the quickest analysis of the doping samples taken. We cooperate with the Polish Anti-Doping Agency, which will take samples of athletes immediately after collection to the laboratory. If everything goes according to plan, then in 3 months we will have the results of doping tests of the European Championship".
Also, Jean-Frederic noted that from the second half of 2017 the program of out-of-competition doping tests will be introduced.
An important news of the congress was the approval of the country hosting the European Championship in 2020. The only candidate submitted for consideration was Hungary. Thus, the European Championship 2020 will be held in the city of Balaton (Hungary).
