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Beautiful Yulia saving the Euro
By Marcin Wojciechowski, Gazeta Wyborcza
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The Ukrainian government gets down to work. `If it`s not
the "iron Yulia`, no one will save the Euro 2012 in Ukraine`, Ukrainian
officials say about PM Yulia Tymoshenko. `We support Ukraine`, says the
Polish minister for sports.
The Ukrainian head of government goes to Lviv this Saturday, the city
most seriously behind with preparations for the European Football Cup
2012. Local officials are in panic, but do hope for Kiev`s help.
Gazeta was to be visited yesterday afternoon by Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor
of Lviv. IN the morning, I took a call from his spokesperson. He was out
of breath and very agitated. `We can`t come. PM Tymoshenko is due here
on Saturday. We are to talk about the Euro. We`ve been told today, there`s
a full-scale mobilisation in the city`.
On Monday, Ms Tymoshenko spoke in Warsaw to Prime Minister Donald Tusk
and Sports Minister Miroslaw Drzewiecki on how to save the Euro in Ukraine.
The UEFA had voiced serious concerns about the progress of the Ukrainian
preparations for the event. This led to press speculation that the organisation
may move the cup elsewhere, or alternatively move more matches, including
the final, from Ukraine to Poland.
As Gazeta found out, the Ukrainian cabinet held a dramatic meeting Wednesday
almost entirely devoted to the Euro 2012. Ms Tymoshenko told her ministers
to give the event an absolute priority.
Lviv makes the worst impression of the four Ukrainian cities aspiring
to host Euro events. That`s why Ms Tymoshenko is going there on an emergency
visit. `The UEFA`s latest report voices concerns especially with respect
to the airport, transportation, and the stadium. In terms on the hotel
base, we`re on a par with Kiev`, admitted Ostap Procyk, the Lviv mayor`s
spokesperson.
Ms Tymoshenko is to talk Saturday to the city`s mayor and to the province
governor on how to save the Euro matches in Lviv. `We`re afraid of the
conversation, but at the same time we`re very much counting on it. If
we get green light from Kiev, we should make it`, a Lviv official told
Gazeta.
Lviv hopes that the government finds the money to modernise the city`s
airport, built back in the 1960s, and to finance the construction of the
Ukrainian stretch of the Cracow-Lviv motorway. The stadium`s construction
is to start in October-November. The project hasn`t yet gone beyond design
stage.
Ms Tymoshenko is also to visit the other Ukrainian cities that are to
host the Euro. She has been monitoring preparations in her home town of
Dnipropetrovsk, which is much wealthier than Lviv. Donetsk in the east
of the country, where the preparations are being financed by the local
oligarch and the country`s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, should have no
problem meeting the deadlines.
In Kiev, the Olympic stadium in the city centre presents a problem. It
still hasn`t been decided whether it should be modernised or whether a
wholly new facility should be built in another place.
Ukraine and Poland are drawing up a detailed strategy of the Euro 2012
preparations, based on the Polish plan for the event. The document is
to be ready by 15 September, when the next meeting of the joint Polish-Ukrainian
organisational committee is scheduled to take place.
Sports Minister Miroslaw Drzewiecki is optimistic: `I can`t imagine Poland
taking the Euro away from Ukraine. You have to be a trustworthy partner
in every situation. As long as Ukraine is doing everything it can, we
need to support it. If some misfortune happens, we`ll be thinking about
how to get out of the situation. But we`ll be doing so together, because
the Euro is a common cause for Poland and Ukraine. Ms Tymoshenko`s visit
has changed a lot. Now we know that everyone in Ukraine have pitched up
and got down to work.
Unian.net,
18.07.2008
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