As EU official website reports, MEPs debated the holding of the 2015 European Games in Baku (Azerbaijan) at a time when most of Azerbaijan’s human rights defenders are in prison. They asked the EU Council of Ministers to force Olympic committees and large sports federations to show respect for human rights, a core EU value, in criteria for decisions on who hosts international sporting events.
Most MEPs stressed that "large sporting events have important economic and political implications and expressed concern that authoritarian regimes may use these events to boost their countries’ reputations".