The joint bid was the only application to have been received by the deadline of May 31.

Andrzej Kraśnicki, President of the Polish Olympic Committee, addressed the meeting before a vote by a show of hands confirmed Kraków and the Małopolska region had delivered their official letter of interest detailing planning and financial guarantees.

"We strongly believe this event will contribute to the development of sport and will also promote the city of Kraków and the Małopolska region," Kraśnicki said.

Sergey Bubka, of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, was the man who officially took up the proposal by EOC President Janez Kocijančič that the matter went to a vote.

The President asked for a show of hands, for and against, before declaring: "I think that is unanimous." 

Earlier, Kocijančič had thanked Minsk 2019 European Games organisers for the "excellent Opening Ceremony and very nice presentation of Belarus culture".

Kocijančič told the Assembly that the EOC would follow the strategy laid out in the International Olympic Committee's Agenda 2020 when it came to arranging the 2023 Games.

“First we find core sports, then discuss with organisers what sports would be of specific interest to them," he said.

"We will have as many qualifications as possible for Olympic qualification, especially as the 2024 Games are also in Europe.

“So we will discuss these matters with our Polish friends."

Speaking after the meeting, Kocijančič added: “We wanted to go with the European Games to different parts of Europe.

“Poland is the right choice for the time, not only because they were the only candidates – we spoke with seven cities – but because they are in the heart of Europe.

“They have a rich sports tradition and I am very satisfied that our Polish friends will take up this project.

“There is already a lot of sport infrastructure.

“Our basic approach is that we wouldn’t like to go around and give a terrible investment burden to the organisers – we want to use existing facilities.

“That is not finalised yet – first we have to prepare the host city contract and that is a dialogue.

“We are not going there to say to them, ‘do this, do that'.

“We will discuss with them and find out the way.”

Asked whether the EOC had an inkling which sports the Polish bid would be interested in hosting, the President said it was too early to say, but added: “In principle we would like to maintain athletics, judo, gymnastics.

“And we will for sure discuss the re-entrance of aquatic sports, such as swimming.

"Last time in Baku we had Junior Championships, which was pretty popular but not the top level.

"We decided to go only with top-level sport, sport which will lead people to the Olympic Games.

“So step by step I think we will achieve it.

“Every country has its own sports identity.

"We would like to accept the development in mind of young generations, we would like to have the sports that are very popular now – things like climbing, breakdancing, that sort of thing.

"We shouldn’t stay with the idea of the Olympic Games from 776BC, before our age."

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