EOC President Spyros Capralos revealed in his opening address at the EOC Seminar in Ancient Olympia in Greece this weekend that he was "very close" to announcing where the Games will be staged in five years’ time.

Speaking to insidethegames, EOC Executive Committee member Hasan Arat, who is leading the efforts to find a host, said there had been a lot of interest from countries to stage the fourth edition of an event that was inaugurated in 2015.

"We are very close as we had very good approaches from countries," said Arat.

"That shows us our product is becoming more valuable for everybody because of the Olympic qualification and how athletes and nations are approaching it."

Arat is chair of the EOC Coordination Commission for Kraków-Małopolska 2023, which has been blighted by delays.

A host city contract was finally agreed in May before Capralos delivered the EOC flag to Polish officials this weekend in another key milestone for organisers.

Arat said the EOC hoped to present the handover flag to the next host during Kraków-Małopolska 2023.

"We hope to do the flag handover in Kraków so we don’t need to wait another three years," said Arat.

"We have had a lot of interest and we are now talking about 2031 as well so that’s great."

The European Games debuted in Baku in Azerbaijan in 2015 before heading to Belarusian capital Minsk in 2019 and will now go to Poland.

Speaking in March, Greek official Capralos revealed that the EOC had received "initial interest" from Western European countries in hosting the fourth edition.

Arat, a vice-president of the Turkish Olympic Committee, also said that he expected both gymnastics and aquatics to feature at the European Games in 2027.

Gymnastics is not on the Kraków-Małopolska 2023 programme, with the lack of an appropriate venue cited by European Gymnastics as the reason.

Aquatics is expected to be added to the mix, with artistic swimming and diving recognised as the most suitable disciplines.

However, Kraków-Małopolska 2023 President Marcin Nowak said a decision over the inclusion of aquatics was still "pending" as organisers try to find a venue for artistic swimming.

"Gymnastics was a difficult case," said Arat.

"The talks took a long time and there was not enough space for the six disciplines.

"It needed a big investment but the time was so short as we just signed the contract in May.

"That’s why this time we agree with European Gymnastics to do this organisation for our next edition.

"The relationship is fine and we will have more aquatics for the next edition as well."

Arat is set to lead an EOC delegation to Poland when the organisation holds its Coordination Commission meeting from October 12 to 13 in Kraków.

"That will be so important to test things out and see what can we do better," added Arat.

"I think we are following the right direction and when we are together we are stronger."