Budapest City Council supports Olympic bid

Budapest is ready to host the Olympic Summer Games and Paralympic Games in 2020, the City Council decided in Budapest.

All the political parties with seats in the council unanimously supported the idea of compiling an impact study about the potential Olympic sites, and initiating a law on bidding for the Olympics.

The party groups will sign a joint document on the intention to host the Olympics, and send it to the president and the prime minister. It would then be up to Parliament to decide, most probably during Hungary's EU presidency in the first half of 2011, whether the city presents a bid for the grandiose project.

Interviewed by national daily Nepszabadsag, Pal Schmitt, President of the Hungarian Olympic Committee and member of the International Olympic Committee, expressed support for the idea, saying that preparations would involve the construction of several sports facilities in the capital city.

Budapest Mayor Gabor Demszky told the paper that 90 percent of the transport and infrastructure investment projects required would in any case be indispensable for making Budapest a more comfortable city to live in.

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