Until 2012 Ukraine and Poland’s preparations for Euro-2012 will be a hot topic in the media. A civic Web site is even counting down the hours, minutes, and seconds. According to its data, 1,362 days are left.
The preparations affect practically every aspect of our life, and today the government and officials in Kyiv, Odesa, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Lviv are talking about investments, developing tourism, construction, medicine, and personnel training. The Ministry of Labor and Social Policy is considering an idea to involve unemployed people in the preparatory process, while the Directorate for the Preparations for Euro-2012 has developed a medical concept for Lviv so that the level of medical services will meet UEFA standards. In spring 2009 Dnipropetrovsk will begin training student volunteers (5,000 are needed).
The Odesa Department, which is in charge of preparing for the championship, has announced that nothing will be constructed in the coastal area: “Soccer has no relation to the sea.” (Is somebody raring to get their hands on this land on the sly?) Ukrainian TV channels are featuring discussions about whether we will overcome prostitution in Ukraine before the games begin.
Ecology is the only topic not being discussed. What will we breathe after the soccer fest, where will we take our children for a walk, and what will we leave for the next generation-besides hotels, stadiums, and roads? Ecologists are already troubled by the fact that state officials frequently flout the law and destroy green spaces, explaining this by the need to build a stadium or a hotel.
Is it possible to find any kind of compromise? Ecological experts, who are monitoring Ukraine’s preparations for Euro-2012, and state officials, who are responsible for this sphere in the cities that are going to welcome soccer fans, say that it is possible and it must be done. The main thing is to prevent people from profiting from Ukraine’s preparations for the championships.
COMMENTARIES
Volodymyr BOREIKO, head of the Kyiv Center of Ecology and Culture:
“We have video materials proving that a park was destroyed in Donetsk to make way for a new stadium. The city already has two stadiums, and many other places to build new ones. Why was it necessary to destroy a big park in Donetsk if the Lokomotyv Stadium is nearby? We also have information relating to Kyiv, where there are plans to build various structures for Euro-2012. They comprise a total area of nearly 250 hectares of primarily green spaces that may be destroyed. They include Trukhaniv Island, where there are plans to build a tent town and a fan club, and Vyrlytsia Lake, where a green zone will be destroyed to make way for a hotel.
“There are plans to destroy an oak grove on the territory of the Exhibition Center to build a new sports complex. Buildings are slated for Zhukiv Island, in the Hydropark, and in the Sviatoshyn forests (several new roads are to be built there). Muromets Island and Cherepanova Mountain in the Dnipro ecological corridor are also at risk.
“We, ecologists, take the following position: every citizen of Ukraine has the constitutional right to live in a clean and healthy environment. If people are deprived of this right, we must protect this right as well as people. We have the example of the 80th Olympiad, when Kyiv took part in this major sports event. Not a single tree was destroyed. For this Kyiv was given an award from the Olympic Committee. Why can’t these achievements be repeated today?
“Under the cover of Euro-2012, different commercial firms want to do things that normally they cannot do all that easily.
They cannot take a green area for construction, but now they can do this because of Euro-2012. We have analyzed several different documents on the preparations for the championship on the UEFA level, the all-Ukraine level, and the city level: no document mentions a single word about ecology. We have written several letters to Michel Platini, but we haven’t received any response. We believe that everything can be done in a proper way, so that we can have our cake and eat it too, but we need the will for this.”
Vadym SHEBANOV, head of the Department for the Euro-2012 Preparations at the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast State Administration:
“The problem of preserving green spaces is especially acute in Dnipropetrovsk because this city is Ukraine’s metallurgical center, and the level of environmental pollution is extremely high. Therefore, existing green areas should be preserved and new ones created as well. During the run-up to Euro-2012, when a number of infrastructure projects are being constructed in the city (hotels, entertainment centers, etc.) the local authorities have adopted a program for the conservation of green zones, which is preventing investors from building anything in these areas. We now have a list of more than 100 parks and squares in the city, which the program aims to protect.
“As of today, 80 small parks have been inventoried. The city’s biggest parks have been on the list for quite a while. The biggest question is Shevchenko and Chkalov parks. As far as I know, Dnipropetrovsk is the only Ukrainian Euro-2012 host city to implement a green conservation program. So far this is a pilot project embracing only the city’s green areas; we cannot talk about a regional scale.”
Oleksii VASYLIUK, deputy head of Ukraine’s National Ecological Center:
“The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development gave money to Ukraine to rebuild the roads that, in theory, will be used by soccer fans to get to the games. So our roads should be redone according to European standards. On the one hand, Ukraine very much needs this, but on the other, this work puts the ecology at risk because some of the roads will go past forests or be built in place of them. In building roads near forests, care should be taken to make them safe for the wild animals that inhabit these green areas.
“First of all, the roads should have specific barriers and crossings that would prevent animals from running out onto the road. The cities that will be hosting the games are building a number of new infrastructures. But the problem is that most of these cities are so densely built up that it is not that easy to find a new area for construction. So, green areas and sports grounds are being sacrificed.
“Another problem concerns infringement of laws. Most of Kyiv’s construction sites violate international laws, specifically the Urban Environmental Accords that our capital signed together with the world’s biggest cities, in addition to a number of Ukrainian laws as well as Kyiv’s General Plan. According to Kyiv’s General Plan of 2002, all green zones that existed then should have remained untouched. Thus, any construction projects undertaken in the capital after 2002 are illegal. Because this law is being violated, 50 hectares of green spaces have been destroyed. It appears, therefore, that Euro-2012 is becoming a reason for violating a number of legal documents.
“Another aspect of the problem is that some people are trying to realize their investment projects, like building cottages, entertainment complexes, etc., ostensibly for Euro-2012. Again, many laws are being broken.
“Another question is: will the soccer fans use the cottages located outside the city? In order to resolve this problem, we sent a public letter to Michel Platini, in which we explained that within the framework of Euro-2012 green spaces are being built over, which violates both Ukrainian legislation and UEFA demands. Since we haven’t received any response, we can see only one way out. As soon as we have new facts on illegal construction projects in green areas, we will appeal to the proper authorities with a request to halt the construction or make it safe for the environment. But for this considerable political will is required, and we don’t have that right now.”
