Euro 2012 - Ukraine and Poland

Over the past several weeks alone, Ukraine was visited by representatives of private and state-owned companies from Belgium, Italy, Argentine, USA, China, Germany, France, Portugal and some other countries with experience in staging large sports competitions who were seeking contracts to help prepare Ukraine for Euro-2012 football tournament, an official at the presidential administration Yaroslav Demchenkov told ZIK March 27.
Specifically, the Spanish embassy in Ukraine will hold a forum of Ukrainian and Spanish businessmen on April 15 in Kyiv where Spanish companies will demonstrate their potential in the construction of sports facilities and related infrastructure. Businessmen will be able to discuss concrete joint projects in preparation for the Euro-2012 tournament. In total, 30 Spanish companies representing various economy sectors will take part in the forum.

Similar forums will be held with business representatives of other countries, Demchenkov said.

Ukraine is planning to spend $25 billion to prepare for the tournament. Of this amount, only 5.1 bn and 4.1 bn will come from local and central budget respectively. The rest of the funding is expected to come from private investors, the government hopes. That is why the cabinet has to urgently revise the tax system, filing of entities and licensing procedures.

KIEV, March 28 (Xinhua) — Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and her Polish counterpart Donald Tusk on Friday promised their countries would co-host the European football championship in 2012 successfully.

Tymoshenko and Tusk made the remarks after the two sides signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in organizing and holding of the 2012 football championship.

“I hope that the agreement we have just singed will change the opinion of UEFA head Michel Platini regarding the quality of preparations for Euro 2012,” Tymoshenko told reporters at a joint news conference with Tusk.

Tusk supported Tymoshenko’s confidence.

“I am one hundred percent sure that we will succeed in co-hosting Euro 2012 football championship,” Tusk said.

Some senior UEFA officials in recent months had expressed worries at the slowness of Polish and Ukrainian preparations for the event, and even hinted that the championship might be taken away from them, if work were not speeded up.

ROME (AFP) — European governing body UEFA are concerned about the state of preparations for Euro 2012 which is to be jointly held by Ukraine and Poland, the organisation’s chief Michel Platini has said.

“We have tried to give them a wake-up call and we will see how things are progressing in a few months time after June,” he told La Repubblica newspaper.

The French footballing legend has already issued a warning to both countries at the end of January over a lack of progress and told them that they had to avoid falling behind in building the necessary infrastructure.

Amid fears that they will be unable to build on time the new stadiums, motorways and rail network it needs to host the championship, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in February announced an extra 100 million euros (158 million dollars) in financing.

Later Friday, Tusk and Ukrainian Prime Minister Julia Timochenko said they were confident that their countries could stage a successful tournament.

“I am 100-percent convinced that we will succeed,” said Tusk at a joint news conference with Timochenko in Kiev.

Timochenko added: “I think we are going to be able to show in June the progress which will satisfy all the organisers of Euro 2012.”

By Sabina Zawadzki

KIEV, March 28 (Reuters) - The prime ministers of Poland and Ukraine sought on Friday to alleviate UEFA fears over the progress of their preparations to host Euro 2012.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and her counterpart Donald Tusk also signed an agreement to set up a body to co-operate on the vast amount of work both countries need to complete, such as modernising transport and building stadiums.

Michel Platini, head of European football’s ruling body UEFA, expressed alarm in January that the two former Communist countries were falling behind schedule.

“We expected and can continue to expect critical warnings from UEFA. It is the responsibility of UEFA and Mr Platini to show every single day what is not yet satisfactory,” Tusk told a news conference.

“We both are, both governments, working as fast as we can, and I am convinced 100 percent that we will manage it.”

Tymoshenko said she believed work had considerably improved since the two new prime ministers were sworn in, he last November, she a month later.

“I think that our meeting, the signing of the appropriate documents and also the recent introduction in our countries of a number of necessary measures will change the position and view of Mr Platini as to the quality of preparations,” she said. Since Platini’s remarks, Ukraine solved a construction dispute surrounding its main Kiev stadium that threatened to prevent it from hosting the final, while the western city of Lviv found a contractor to start building its stadium.

Later on Friday, Platini cautiously welcomed the recent progress and said UEFA would do “everything necessary” to ensure the tournament went ahead in Poland and Ukraine.

“When we expressed our concerns in January it was because we found the organisers had been sleeping a little,” Platini told reporters following a UEFA executive committee meeting in Liechtenstein.

“Now they have woken up and we have woken up so there has been some headway. But we will still have to wait a few months to see if things are really improving.”

(Additional reporting by Mark Ledsom in Vaduz)

(Editing by Trevor Huggins)

Prime Minister Donald Tusk while in Ukraine, Thursday afternoon, is to discuss Polish-Ukrainian preparations for Euro 2012.

Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko told a press conference that Ukrainian authorities are willing to help any investors interested in Euro 2012.

PM Tymoshenko explained to Polish journalists that the Ukrainian preparations for the event had been delayed by the political rows in Kiev, but she ensured that her government was back on track and working hard again.

The Ukrainian Premier expressed her confidence that Poland and Ukraine would manage to complete all necessary investments on time.

‘Our countries have always succeeded through extraordinary efforts’, she told the press conference.

The Premier said that her government had submitted with the Ukrainian General Council a package of new bills to facilitate domestic and foreign investments before Euro 2012 and added that she would meet head of the Ukrainian Parliament on Monday to ensure all the bills were passed as soon as possible.

According to press speculations, PMs Yulia Tymoshenko and Donald Tusk will sign a Polish -Ukrainian Euro 2012 co-operation agreement during Tusk’s visit in Kiev today. (mj)

polskieradio.pl

Italy had been favourites to host the tournament, but they were surprisingly beaten by Poland and Ukraine, as UEFA wanted the responsibility and honour to go to Eastern Europe.

However the preparations so far have been nothing short of a disaster, and Ukraine have not even begun work on the infrastructure.

With this in mind it is not impossible that the two countries will be forced to withdraw from hosting the tournament.

“If we can’t solve the question of the road network then we won’t be able to host the tournament,” said work co-ordinator Evhen Chervonenko.

“We have had an offer from an American investor, but the work can’t start without permission from the Ministry of Transport.

“Perhaps they have other projects, but the one thing that’s certain is that so far nothing has been done.”

Italy may now be asked to step in, although UEFA are certain to give Poland and Ukraine every opportunity to solve their problems.

Italy have hosted the European Championships in 1968 and 1980, winning the former. They have also held two World Cups, in 1934 and 1990, again emerging victorious in the former.

goal.com

Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko claims that, under condition of balanced implementation of the National Program for Preparing and Holding EURO-2012, Ukraine will be ready to this event.

According to an UNIAN correspondent, Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko claimed this today, speaking at the extended session of the government, devoted to summing up the results of its activities over the first 100 days of work.

“There were no efficient and balanced plans for carrying out EURO-2012 in Ukraine, no efficient decisions were made. For this short period we could prepare a balanced plan on the measures, means, and financing”, Yulia Tymoshenko said.

The Prime Minister recalled that the National Plan stipulates building airports, hotels, and roads.

“We began to implement it every day, and should this dynamics be kept on, we have all grounds to assert that Ukraine will be ready to this event”, she said.

unian.net

This was disclosed by President’s Press Secretary Iryna Vannikova who said that President Viktor Yushchenko means to meet Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk this day, who will be on an official visit to Ukraine.

The parties will discuss bilateral relations and the two countries’ preparation for the Euro 2012 finals. The Cabinet of Ministers has already approved a draft agreement on cooperation with Poland during the Euro 2012 finals. The Government commissioned Head of the National Agency for Euro 2012 in Ukraine Yevhen Chervonenko to sign the instrument.

nrcu.gov.ua

Yevheniy Chervonenko noted at a meeting of the Public Control Committee of Euro-2012 that the National Agency and the Football Federation of Ukraine joined efforts to prepare for the Championship.

At the same time, Chervonenko stated that there is no a coordinated policy in this sphere in Ukraine. According to him, each Ministry protects its narrow departmental interests. “Large investment funds are necessary for its implementation, and if we succeed in actually attracting USD 20 billion for Ukraine, we will receive entirely another country. The funds of such a size dictate another rules of the play, when the role of an official, who decides whether to permit or not, is neutralized”, Mr. Chervonenko noted.

nrcu.gov.ua

Poland will manage to carry out only 60-70 percent of the planned investments and won’t build enough roads for EURO 2012 finals, vice head of the infrastructure committee Janusz Piechoci?ski has told Puls Biznesu.

The daily warns that Polish road constructors need to speed up investments worth over 26 billion zlotys, but so far have only been concerned with the paper work. In spite of this black scenario the General Directorate of National Highways and Motorways is staying optimistic and promises to do their best to realise the whole plan, writes the paper.

Gazeta Prawna reports on Ukrainian difficulties with EURO 2012 organisation which are even worse shape than Polands. According to Poland’s Minister of Sports Miroslaw Drzewiecki, UEFA is likely to pass on to Poland the right to organise the majority of the matches of the tournament, because of Ukraine’s poor stage of preparations, as well as politization of the project. The daily writes that then the matches in Ukraine would be played on two stadiums only, and Poland will provide six. The final decision is to be taken a year and a half before the start of the finals.

polskieradio.pl