Three nations have offered to take on the Championships - Sweden, Georgia and Romania. 

The European Weightlifting Federation (EWF) favours Sweden and its President, Antonio Urso, and general secretary Hasan Akkus are due to visit the proposed host city of Halmstad on October 25.

It was the idea of Kjell-Åke Johansson, President of the Swedish Weightlifting Federation, to offer to host the Championships.

"We are talking to our Sports Minister, to potential sponsors, and we will meet the EWF President and secretary before the end of the month," he said. 

"There are many challenges, and not much time but I am hopeful it will all work out.

"The last time we hosted a major senior event in Sweden was 1985, when the World Championships were at Sodertalje, but we have hosted some junior events since then."

Sweden's 58 kilogram lifter Angelica Roos, who competed at Rio 2016, would be a medal contender based on current rankings.

Johansson said the equipment manufacturer Eleiko, whose headquarters are in Halmstad, would help with arrangements, offering the use of facilities at their new state-of-the-art weightlifting centre to the Organising Committee, possibly for training and conferences.

Halmstad, a port, university, industrial and recreational city at the mouth of Nissan in the province of Halland on the west coast of Sweden, is already due to host the Liebherr 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships next year between April 29 and May 6. 

Eleiko and other sponsors in the sport are worried about the possible loss of television coverage next year.

Urso said the European Broadcasting Union wrote to him three days ago warning it wants to cancel coverage of the Championships in 2018, because so many top athletes will be missing.

If that happened it would cost them €72,000 (£64,000/$85,000) said Urso, who will go to Switzerland within the next few days to negotiate with the EBU.

Seven European nations, plus China and Kazakhstan, are about to begin one-year doping bans for having three or more positives in the retesting of samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.

Russia, which has the biggest potential viewing market, is banned by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) along with Turkey, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Of the 49 retest positives, 43 came from Soviet Bloc countries. 

Neither Georgia nor Romania is among the banned nations, and both had Federation Presidents willing to state their case as hosts at the EWF Congress  – unlike Sweden.

Sweden has one of the smallest teams at the European Junior and Under-23 Championships, which begin here tomorrow, and Johansson did not travel to Albania. 

The Championships are being broadcast live on Albanian state television.

Urso apologised to Romania’s Nicu Vlad when he complained about transparency, but he is focusing on Sweden’s offer.

Georgia has been awarded the 2019 European Championships, to be staged in the Black Sea resort of Batumi, and Urso says he wants a 2018 host nation "with absolutely no problem with doping".

The Junior/Under-23 Championships have a combined final entry list of 345 from 35 nations, which is a record, Akkus told the Congress.

Of those, nearly 150 are from the banned nations, who are allowed to compete because the suspensions will not begin until letters have been sent to all nine Member Federations by the IWF, probably within a few days.

Urso said any talk of postponing the 2018 Championships until the autumn, thereby allowing the suspended nations to complete their bans in time to compete next year, was "fake news from Russia" - which angered Maxim Agapitov, the Russian Weightlifting Federation President.

"This is another case of ‘blame Russia, of’ making us the scapegoat," said Agapitov.

"I am not saying it was an official proposal, I understand it was maybe just an idea, but it [moving the date] was definitely talked about. 

"I am not so stupid as to create ‘fake news’ like this.

"I 100 per cent understand the decision to suspend the countries with a lot of doping offences. 

"The problem comes from the past, but we have to take responsibility."