Treasury minister Aleksander Grad has voiced confidence preparations to the Euro 2012 are in no way jeopardized.

Exactly a year ago UEFA had granted Poland and Ukraine the joint organization of the Old Continent’s football championships.

Speaking on Polish Radio, minister Grad enumerated many key government decisions of the past few months paving the way for concrete actions. However, he considered the planning and preparatory stages to launching specific investment undertakings still require some time.

The treasury minister pointed to the crucial decision of PM Donald Tusk’s cabinet concerning principles defining the legal framework for financing of new stadiums. This includes the National Stadium to be constructed in Warsaw. Work is proceeding full steam, said the minister. Aleksander Grad also voiced hope that the next UEFA inspection commission which will examine the state of preparations to the Euro 2012 championships will appreciate the progress made by Poland to date.

From: Poland.pl

The president of UEFA, Michel Platini appealed to organizers of the football European championships in 2012, Poles and Ukrainians, in order to “wake them up” in the realization of the program of preparations for this event.

Euro 2012 found the good place, but some people say that more brisk movements are needed from the side of both countries - on the webpage pointing to the opinion of Platini was written. The UEFA in 30th of the January presented the critical report on preparations of organizers of championships, underlining, that “the closest months will have deciding meaning in order to avoid harmful delays in the realization of projects concerning the infrastructure”.

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Ukraine could lose the right to co-host Euro 2012 unless the government acted quickly to stimulate investment in infrastructure, Ukraine football federation president Grigory Surkis warned on Monday.

“The country’s government and the opposition should unite their efforts to make all the necessary changes in the country’s legislation to stimulate investment in the country’s infrastructure,” Surkis told a news conference.

“Time is running out. We now have only days and hours - not years and months at our disposal. If we don’t act quickly, Ukraine may lose the right to host the European championships.”

He added however that he did not consider such a move likely and said the problem was more one of government organisation than of will.

“I hope it will never happen,” Surkis said. “I see the desire of the president and all of the country’s top authorities to do all of their best for staging the European championship in Ukraine.”

Last month UEFA president Michel Platini admitted he had been forced to tell the joint hosts of the 2012 European Championships, Ukraine and Poland, to speed up their preparations for the event.

“We’ve had to wake them up a little and tell them it’s time to get going,” Platini said.

“The 2012 Euro will still be held (there), but we’ve told them in the nicest possible way to speed things up a bit.”

Platini warned last month that the co-hosts faced a crucial period after concerns mounted over the state of preparations for the event.

“I have the distinct feeling that the next four to six months will be crucial in order to avoid any critical slippage in infrastructure projects and to protect the credibility of the Euro project,” Platini said.

Ukraine and Poland are both hosting the continent’s footballing showpiece for the first time.

From:  sports.indiatimes.com

Poland and Ukraine have been told by UEFA president Michel Platini to speed up their preparations for the 2012 European championships. Platini informed both countries that their preparations for the tournament must improve.

“I have the distinct feeling that the next four to six months will be crucial in order to avoid any critical slippage in sports and public infrastructure projects and to protect the global credibility of the Euro project itself,” Platini said during executive committee discussions of the planning stage.

UEFA acknowledged that preparations had suffered because of political instability in the two countries since they won the race to host the finals last April.

Platini demanded governments of the two countries to set up proper management structures in order to closely monitor “all the projects related to Euro 2012″.

Michal Listkiewicz, the president of the Polish FA said: “It is true that we are behind in some projects because of the political turbulence of last year but we are confident that everything will be back on schedule.”

In a statement, UEFA said “By choosing Poland and the Ukraine, UEFA took a momentous decision that gave a strong message to central and eastern Europe.

“It is clear that there has been a certain degree of political instability in both countries in 2007. However, this instability now seems to be over with newly established governments in each country, but there can be no doubt that the launch of investment-intensive projects, such as stadiums, airports and motorways has suffered from the instability.”

Platini added: “UEFA is totally committed to do everything possible in the next few months to assist and support the two associations at both the advisory and administrative level in order to guarantee the success of the project.”

World Cup holders Italy were strongly tipped to win last April’s vote and the decision to award the 2012 finals to the joint bid from eastern Europe came as a shock. However, despite the current uncertainty there was no suggestion from Platini that the finals would be taken away from Poland and Ukraine.

From: www.worldsoccer.com

Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski Wednesday in Warsaw signed a package of laws designed to streamline investment procedures and thus speed-up work preparing Poland to co-host UEFA’s 2012 European football championships along with eastern neighbour Ukraine.

In the heat of Poland’s ongoing general election campaign, opposition politicians have slammed the government of President Kaczynski’s identical twin brother, Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski for dragging its heels with regard to the highly important project. With no world-class football stadiums and virtually no European-class highways, many have expressed serious doubts as to whether Poland will be prepared for the 2012 kick-off. Poland, which joined the EU in 2004, will co-host the Euro 2012 football finals with non-EU Ukraine. Both countries are now faced with the mammoth tasks of building a new motorway and stadium infrastructure.

Poland currently has no world-class stadium facilities and a only a very limited motorway network. Poland is also struggling with a hooligan problem, which came to the fore again in July when European football’s ruling body UEFA threw Legia Warsaw out of the Intertoto Cup and banned the Polish club from European competition for a year. The ban came in the wake of crowd trouble when Legia fans ran amok during a second round first-leg match against FK Vetra Vilnius in the Lithuanian capital. Poland’s Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski subsequently apologized to Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas for the violence.

From: www.earthtimes.org