European Commission to Boycott 2014 Olympics

Steven Petrov
The Paw Print

The members of the European commission will not attend the opening ceremony for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi on February 7th. The European Commission is an important and influential institution that deals with proposing new legislations to the EU Parliament and making sure that the EU law is being understood and applied in the right way.
The main reason for the commissioners’ absence pointed out by the EC’s official spokesman Olivie Bai, was their extremely busy working schedule, but we all know that the EU has a different opinion than the Russia’s government and politics on the topic of Human rights. The 2014 Winter Olympic games opening ceremony is the perfect occasion for the EU to double underline its statement and political standings about the way Russia is handling the Human Rights issues in the country. The Germany’s president, Joachim Gauck, was the first to announce that he will not attend the ceremony. Following his example, the French president, François Hollande also declined the invitation for the opening ceremony, and France will not have a single key politician in Sochi on February 7th.
The German and French key politicians were not the only ones to boycott this major event’s opening ceremony. The others who followed their example were the British prime minister, David Cameron, and the European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, Viviane Reding. They stated that they will not travel to Sochi until there is a major change in the way the Russian authorities treat minorities.  The last but definitely not least to support this political standing was the US President Barrack Obama, who also refused to travel to Russia, for the ceremony.
The Olympic games are one of the biggest and most watched sporting events in the world, but even they can’t change the fact that key political figures from around the world are supporting the idea for a change in the Russian social and political system so that the different minorities within the country have more and equal rights. My personal opinion is that Russia should take these recommendations and suggestions more seriously because all people deserve equal rights, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, nationality or place of living.