Capralos, who is also an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member, was able to share news with Schinas and athlete representatives from the EOC and IOC in Brussels about the progress made in following up the plea for humanitarian assistance made on March 3 by the IOC President, Thomas Bach.

At Bach’s urgent request, IOC member and World Athletics senior vice-president Sergey Bubka - who is President of the Ukrainian National Olympic Committee - arrived in Lausanne to co-ordinate the assistance.

Bach added: "With the support of Olympic Solidarity in Lausanne and his team at the NOC in Ukraine, Mr Bubka will lead on the allocation and distribution of the solidarity fund towards the Ukrainian Olympic community and sports movement. 

"To facilitate this task we will begin collecting information on the whereabouts of these members of the Ukrainian Olympic community as well as ongoing initiatives and support."

Capralos commented: "Along with the IOC and thanks to the collaboration from many European NOCs, we are making every effort to ensure that Ukrainian athletes will compete in the upcoming Winter European Youth Olympic Festival in Vuokatti in the best possible conditions."

The theme of the meeting, which was to have been part of the latest EOC Athletics Commission seminar in Brussels this week until that was postponed "due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine", was "Promoting our European Way of Life."

With Gerd Kanter, the EOC Athletes' Commission chair, participating remotely, the chair of the IOC Athletes' Commission Emma Terho presented recommendations on behalf of European athletes for the upcoming Conference on the Future of Europe, setting out the priorities of European sport.

Also present were EOC secretary general Raffaele Pagnozzi, EOC Athletes' Commission member Viktor Knoch, EOC EU office director Folker Hellmund and the IOC Athletes' Department Director Kaveh Mehrabi.

The Conference on the Future of Europe is a large citizen consultation launched by the EU to listen to its population's hopes and ideas on future priorities of the EU and make recommendations to the EU moving forward.

Schinas, who is also Commissioner for "Promoting out European Way of Life", commented: "Cooperation between the European Olympic Committee and the European Commission is excellent.

"In these unprecedented, challenging times we confirmed that, hand in hand, we are committed to promoting shared Olympic and EU values, including tolerance, equality, respect, and solidarity.

"These are key elements of our European Model of Sport.

"The value of the viewpoints of athletes in decision-making processes of sport organisations and in particular the role of the EOC Athletes' Commission is immense.

"Facilitating the access of athletes to education and training, as well as encouraging the establishment of accessible dual career schemes is also essential."

Capralos added: "Great strides have been made in recent years in terms of equal opportunity, health and wellbeing, athlete representation, and much more.

"But we still have work to do, and together with Vice President Schinas, EU Commissioner for Sport Mariya Gabriel and their teams, we will deliver a European sporting future and the European Sport Model that will support generations to come."

The proposals put forward by the EOC and IOC athletes' representatives were developed in consultation with Athletes' Commissions across Europe.

A survey was launched by the EOC Athletes' Commission, focusing on four pressing topics: The European sport model, athlete representation within sports organisations,  support for athletes, and funding for European sport.

The EOC and the IOC will now organise follow-up meetings with representatives of Athletes' Commissions across Europe to deepen the discussion on the recommendations that have been presented to the European Commission.