Oldrich Vanícek, President of the Czech Republic’s UAMK has been appointed interim chairman of the COFO region, after Danijel Starman of Slovenia’s AMZS stepped down from the position.

“I hope with my appointment that we can bring something new to the region, even though it brings with it a lot more work!” said Mr Vanícek. “I think we have a very good connection among the countries in the region and I think we can do a lot together. 

“You cannot compare our situation to that of western European clubs as many of our clubs started quite recently,” he added. “It’s complicated for some of our clubs to express to the public what they offer. With long established clubs in western Europe, the services they offer are a known package, but many of our clubs onlybegan after 1990. We need more years, we need support from Region I and we need more support on Road Safety initiatives.”

The new COFO chairman said that one development issue that presented a problem for small clubs was the establishment of roadside service call centres.

“For some small clubs in eastern Europe this is the most complicated and demanding service to finance,” he said. “It has been an idea to establish a common, multi-lingual call centre to service many countries, especially in territories which have Russian as a second language. I think this idea is something we can progress with, as without communication we have nothing.

“Beyond this I think the priority for the region is road safety, particularly for children and also for cyclists and pedestrians.”