Euro 2012 - Ukraine and Poland

They noted positive developments of the country’s preparation to the continental championship in their final report.

In the report experts also noted actions by the state and local authorities in Ukraine’s preparation to Euro 2012. In particular, the state took issues on airports under its strict control, and the local authorities confirmed guarantees with regard to the transport infrastructure and worked out in detail the plans of its construction. A final decision with regard to a place of holding the European Football Championship 2012 should be taken by the Executive Committee of the Union of European Football Associations on September 23 - 24 at its Congress in Bordeaux.

WARSAW - POLAND is keen to see Chinese firms bid on constructions project slated for the UEFA Euro 2012 football championships after witnessing China’s success in organising the Olympic Games in Beijing.

‘They have enormous experience in this area and the sports facilities they built prove it,’ Poland’s Minister of Sport Miroslaw Drzewicki said after returning to Warsaw from the Olympics this week.

Accompanied by Interior Minister Grzegorz Schetyna, Drzewicki said their trip was designed to highlight the Polish government’s ‘enormous interest’ in Chinese construction and engineering firms bidding on contracts for the construction of stadia and other large-scale infrastructure projects for Euro 2012.

‘If their bids are better than those of the Belgians or the French, they will win the tenders and realise the investments,’ Mr Drzewicki said.

He said a delegation of Chinese companies are slated to visit Poland in mid-September to learn about Poland’s building plans for Euro 2012. A member of the European Union since 2004, Poland will co-host the event with non-EU eastern neighbour Ukraine.

Poland is in dire need of new highways, other transport infrastructures as well as world-class football stadia.

Construction plans call for the national stadium in Warsaw to have a capacity of 55,000 fans, a price tag of 1.2 billion zlotys (S$740 million) and be completed by mid-2011.

UEFA president Michel Platini recently gave a thumbs up to Poland’s preparations for the 2012 European football championships, but was not so positive about Ukraine following a recent trip.

Mr Platini will present a political and technical report on the two countries’ preparations to UEFA’s executive committee located in Bordeaux, France, expected on September 24 or 25. The committee is to make a final decision whether Poland and Ukraine will indeed host the play-offs. — AFP

WARSAW, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) — Chinese firms are prepared to build motorways, underground, stadiums, fast railway in Poland for the Euro 2012 soccer championships, Poland’s Sports Minister Miroslaw Drzewiecki said on Tuesday after his return from Beijing.

Drzewiecki, along with Poland’s deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Grzegorz Schetyna, met with representatives of Chinese companies which built railway stations, sports facilities, airports for the Olympic games.

“We went to China to confirm our enormous interest in the participation of local firms in tenders for the construction of sports facilities for Euro 2012,” Polish news agency PAP quoted Drzewiecki as saying.

“They have enormous experience in this field, as was shown by the sports facilities they had constructed,” he added.

Representatives of Chinese firms will visit Poland in mid-September to be informed about investments planned ahead of Euro 2012.

Poland will co-host the European soccer championship with Ukraine.

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WARSAW, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) — UEFA experts in stadiums and safety held a working meeting here Friday with representatives of the Euro2012 soccer games’ Polish host cities and expressed their appreciation for the significant progress of work in recent months,Local media reported.

“I am impressed with progress you have made in a few recent months,” said Marc Timmer, head of the UEFA team for stadiums and safety. “Poland is an example to be followed not only by Ukraine, but also by any future Euro soccer games hosts,” he added.

Poland and Ukraine have jointly received a chance for hosting Euro 2012.

“Your work and attitude to the preparations makes us feel secure. Our sense of security will be conveyed to UEFA board,” added David Petriashvili, one of the experts.

Text of report by Interfax-Ukraine news agency

Lviv, 20 August: There is no sufficient time or professional working team for refurbishing the airports, Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Vasyunyk told a briefing on Wednesday [20 August]. “Time has always been the main problem with this kind of projects here and there. Ukraine doesn’t have a problem with financing, this year alone the government allocated nearly 250m dollars for airports. The only problem is creating professional teams capable of keeping up with the work schedule,” he said after a meeting of the government working group for the preparation of the 2012 European football championship in Lviv.

Vasyunyk also said that he met an UEFA inspector who, as part of the group, examined the progress with airports.

“They saw that the plan presented by Ukraine in Vienna is being carried out step by step without delays. New runways and terminals are being designed at all six airports. This is why we are looking forward to much more positive expert conclusions,” he assured.

Vasyunyk said that the government designed a formula of joint financing of the repairs and construction of municipal roads in Lviv. The state and the city budget will evenly share the expenses or loans will be drawn.

Originally published by Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian 1810 20 Aug 08.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

Source: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union

They remained satisfied with Ukrzaliznytsia’s and Ukravtodor’s presentations on the situation with preparations of transport infrastructure for the football tournament.

The experts were speaking during a council at the Transport and Communications Ministry involving the leadership of Ukrzaliznytsia (State Railway Administration of Ukraine), Ukravtodor (State Road Service of Ukraine), the Economy Ministry, the Housing and Communal Economy Ministry, as well as representatives from the regional state administrations of host cities. According to Ukrzaliznytsia First Deputy Director Mykola Lukhanin, preparations are being made in accordance with a programme for preparing for and hosting Euro 2012 finals. The repair and construction work continues at the Kyiv - Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk - Lviv railway sections in order to introduce high speed trains on the Ukrainian railways. Following talks with representatives of Alstom Company, Mr Lukhanin said that Ukrzaliznytsia would sign a contract on the purchase of seven high-speed tilting trains in October or November this year.

Source:nrcu.gov.ua

Poland’s Sports Minister says that Chinese proposals for the construction of football stadiums for Euro 2012 in Poland are half the cost of European counterparts.

The Polish Minister of Sport, Miroslaw Drzewiecki, has sent a clear message to European investors bidding for deals to construct football stadiums for the Euro 2012 football championships that they may soon forget about their contracts in Poland, accusing them of “conspiracy and greed. Instead, Poland is likely to hire Chinese companies for half the price, reports the Dziennik daily.

“I will do my utmost to make sure that Poland does not succumb to the price dictatorship exercised by European companies who have made secret arrangements on how to milk the Polish state,” Drzewiecki said after his visit to the Beijing Olympic Games.

Drzewiecki claimed that European bidders for Euro 2012 investments want two to three times as much as they would normally charge other European countries.

Minister Drzewiecki named China when asked who Poland would appoint to construct the sports infrastructure and pointed out that Beijing was the biggest construction site in the world in the past seven years.

“When [the Chinese] found out that we invalidated a tender for the construction of a second underground line in Warsaw and announced a new bid, they said they would be glad to do it for half the price offered in bids submitted by Western companies,” Drzewiecki said. (mj)

Cracow applies for EU funds to help in the construction of a modern Congress Centre.
Recently two investment projects from Cracow entered the list of investments of key significance for Poland published by the Ministry of Regional Development. The projects concerned the development of the underground area of the Main Market Square and the construction of a tram connection to the Jagiellonian University Campus on the outskirts of the city.

Now Cracow witnesses a birth of another key investment aiming at building a new Congress Centre. A pre-agreement on allocating subsidies from the Regional Operational Programme for the Ma?opolska region to the project has been signed by the city authorities, represented by the Cracow’s president Jacek Majchroswski and the Ma?opolskie voivodship’s marshal, Marek Nawara.
In May the city authorities selected the best project for the centre. The winning project comes form the Architectural Office Ingarden&Ewý Ltd. Both the project’s authors and investors hope to obtain the planning permission by mid 2009 and select the general contractor for the construction by the second half of 2010 what should make it possible to complete the construction process by 2012. Jan Machowski, from the Cracow City Council’s Press Office told the PAIiIZ Newsletter that the year 2012 does start to shed a specific light on many investment initiatives across Poland. Although the congress centre bears no direct link to the EURO 2012, the initiative’s progress has been monitored by many foreign partners. “We receive many commercial inquires concerning the possibility of congress organisation in Cracow. A modern congress facility stands a good chance of helping develop the so-called congress tourism in the city”, Jan Machowski said.
The marshal of the Ma?opolska voivodship emphasised also that the centre ranks among the three most vital projects in the regional development strategy of the voivodship. City Council’s representatives convince that the project is one of the first initiatives to be approached so bravely and without constraints. The final effect will allow to organise a whole range of congresses, concerts, performances and exhibitions. The edifice which is thought to be a kind of architectural showcase of the city will be situated near the Grunwald roundabout with a view on the Royal Castle and the Kazimierz district.
The edifice will have a corrugated, sloping roof and a foyer made of glass that will offer a view on the Wawel caste. The outer wall of the building will comprise partly of a see-through materials and partly of an abstract ceramic-stone mosaic.
While the biggest hall’s seating capacity is planned to reach 1.8 thousand people, the smaller conference halls are estimated to seat from 300 to 600 persons. The project accounts also for a car park for about 300 units and a commercial-and-catering-oriented facilities. Interestingly, high level of technologically advanced techniques to be implemented in the construction process of the building e.g. in the field of the building’s layout and the acoustics of the halls, require consultations with the best world specialists. (Cracow City Council)

Source:polishmarket.com.pl

By Igor Nitsak

KIEV, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Ukraine take on Poland in a friendly on Wednesday that risks being overshadowed by the problems facing the two countries as they prepare to host the 2012 European Championship.

The two ex-communist states, and particularly Ukraine, are being subjected to intense scrutiny by European soccer’s ruling body UEFA after doubts emerged about their ability to stage the event.

Following recent visits to the two countries by its president Michel Platini, UEFA will take a final decision on the tournament at a meeting in Bordeaux in September.

On Wednesday in Lviv, one of four Ukrainian venues for Euro 2012, the spotlight will turn instead to the footballing credentials of the two host nations.

With one eye on the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, Ukraine coach Olexiy Mikhailichenko will be looking to try out young players who could one day take over from experienced regulars like striker Andriy Shevchenko.

Shevchenko told reporters on Monday: “I am getting better and have been training with my team for three weeks. The match with Poland is the last chance to test my strength. I hope to play, but it’s up to the coach to decide the line-up.

CAPTAIN’S ARMBAND
Shevchenko is expected to hand over the captain’s armband to Zenit St Petersburg midfielder Anatoly Tymoshchuk, who helped his club win the UEFA Cup in May and was voted the best player of the Russian premier league.

“It is possible that we will get a new captain. This will be a common decision,” Mikhailichenko told reporters earlier this month. “The whole team will vote. There is no other option.”

Mikhailichenko will be missing two players through injury on Wednesday — reserve keeper Vyacheslav Kernozenko and defender Andriy Nesmachny.

One highly-touted player, Serbian Marko Devic, naturalised this year to boost Ukraine’s World Cup campaign, will not be in the line-up due to a loss of form.

Mikhailichenko replaced Oleg Blokhin after Ukraine failed to qualify for Euro 2008. His side have defeated Sweden and lost to the Netherlands in previous friendlies.

Poland’s Dutch coach Leo Beenhakker has replaced Cracovia forward Marcin Krzywicki, who is nursing a groin injury, with Jagiellonia Bialystok defender Krzysztof Krol.

Poland head into the game after a disappointing Euro 2008.

Having qualified for the tournament as group winners ahead of favourites Portugal, the Poles managed only one draw and two defeats before bowing out at the group stage, with Beenhakker criticising several of his key players for failing to deliver.

(Editing by Trevor Huggins)

Source:uk.reuters.com

Taipei - A Taiwan architecture firm said Saturday it may seek at least one million dollars in damages from the Ukrainian government for scrapping a contract to remodel a Kiev stadium to host the Euro 2012 football tournament. “We are still seeking to win back the contract. If the effort fails, we do not rule out suing the Ukrainian government for damages, which should be a minimum of one million US dollars,” Archasia President Eric Hsu said.

Hsu said Taiwan’s representative at the World Trade Organization (WTO) had raised the issue with Ukraine’s WTO representative.

Archasia has also sought China’s help to stop Ukraine from awarding the contract to a German firm. Archasia has signed up the China Metallurgical Group Corp to carry out the renovation of the Kiev Olympic Stadium.

“We heard that China State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office is taking the issue seriously and has been contacting Ukraine since June,” he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.