April 18 will mark one year since the Ukrainian delegation convinced the UEFA leadership into holding the UEFA Euro 2012 championship in Ukraine. How is Ukraine preparing for the games? This topic was discussed at a roundtable entitled “Euro 2012: Risk or Opportunity?” which was held on April 9 at the Gorshenin Institute. All the presenters, including Vitalii Klitschko and Hryhorii Surkis, who were members of the delegation that visited Cardiff last year, concluded that last year’s preparations for Euro 2012 were not efficient enough, mostly for lack of activity on the government’s part.
However, Yurii Pavlenko, Minister of Family, Youth, and Sports of Ukraine, who was also a member of that delegation, is convinced that there is no danger of Ukraine being canceled as a Euro 2012 host country, since preparations are being made according to a program that was adopted by the government. Below is our interview with Yuri PAVLENKO, who described how his ministry, one of the state bodies responsible for the championship, is preparing for the Euro 2012.
Mr. Pavlenko, what preparations for the Euro 2012 were completed last year?
In discussing the preparations for the Euro 2012, it is necessary to bear in mind that Ukraine has never embarked on such projects. Furthermore, the European soccer championship requires both the construction of sports facilities and serious changes to the country’s infrastructure. This means building roads, hotels, and airports, upgrading transport, solving border-crossing problems, and many other things. Of course, these are perennial tasks for Ukraine regardless of the championship, but the main role of the Euro 2012 is that it has a clear-cut timeframe within which these tasks must be carried out. We got slightly behind schedule in the period between the date of the UEFA’s decision and the end of 2007 because of the political crisis. But after the new government was formed, we succeeded in adopting an official program for preparing and holding the Euro 2012.
In particular, the program determines the positions of local authorities in solving tasks, along with precise financial calculations for every project. This year’s budget appropriations amount to 4.8 billion hryvnias. A legislative package aimed at acquiring investments has been prepared. Out of 130 billion hryvnias required for the Euro 2012 preparations, we plan 100 billion hryvnias’ worth of investments. As for the sports infrastructure, the stadiums in Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk are practically ready. Construction designs and investors have been confirmed for Odesa and Lviv. Reconstruction works at the Kharkiv stadium are in progress. There are still debates on the renovation of airports and we have road construction and border-crossing problems, but let me remind you that the Euro 2012 won’t take place in 2008 but in 2012. I am certain that we will have enough time to prepare properly for the event.
In a recent interview Yevhen Chervonenko, the head of the National Agency for Preparing and Holding the Euro 2012 in Ukraine, said that the main problem in preparing for the soccer championship is the absence of a uniform mechanism to control this process. Do you agree with him?
I wouldn’t want to comment on Mr. Chervonenko’s statement, but I don’t agree with him. I don’t think that this problem exists today. We have the complete cooperation of the National Agency, the Football Federation of Ukraine, and other organizations engaged in preparations for the Euro 2012. According to a government decision, each body in the central executive branch has clearly formulated tasks within its jurisdiction and is working on them. The coordinating center, as we know, is the National Agency for Preparing and Holding the Euro 2012 in Ukraine.
We are hearing a number of complaints about the Kyiv authorities, that instead of starting the preparations for the Euro 2012, these bureaucrats are drafting plans and issuing permits for the construction of high-rise apartment buildings and trade and entertainment centers. Architects believe that these projects are distorting the city’s historic visage. What should be done to kick start the preparations for the championship in Ukraine’s capital?
A program of preparations for the Euro 2012 has been adopted in Kyiv, so now the main task is to implement it. The Verkhovna Rada’s resolution on holding early elections for the mayor and Kyiv city council members has added some dynamism to this process. I hope that the election campaign forces the current municipal authorities to become more active in preparing for the championship. In general, I have many grievances against the Kyiv authorities, particularly in regard to their failure to complete the dismantling of the Troitsky trade and entertainment center in a timely fashion and the way they’re developing the sports infrastructure. They’re even allowing construction projects in place of school stadiums. I am sure that during the mayoral elections this May the residents of Kyiv will make a decision that will ensure the city’s progress, particularly in terms of preserving and expanding sports and fitness facilities.
Has the choice of soccer stadium been determined? Will it be the Olympic Stadium or a new one?
It will definitely be the Olympic National Sports Complex, which remains the biggest problem in the development of Kyiv’s sports infrastructure. A tender for its renovation has been announced and by April 14 the name of the design and construction firm will be chosen. [This interview was originally published on April 10.]
Borys Voskresensky, the vice-president of the Football Federation of Ukraine, recently told journalists that the foreign companies that have agreed to help develop the Olympic Stadium will have it ready in 2011, at best, while the UEFA demands that it be ready in 2010. How can this problem be solved?
More than 10 construction firms have submitted their bids for the Olympic reconstruction project. The bidding terms and conditions have a deadline in black and white: July 2010. Of course, it can be altered in case of necessity, but we have discussed this contingency with the UEFA leadership (there have been many similar cases in various countries). The 2010 deadline rather than 2012 is specifically meant to allow time for adjustments. In view of this, our main task is to complete the bulk of the preparations in 2010, so that the UEFA leadership has no doubts about Ukraine being ready to host the championship in a worthy manner. All the UEFA commissions that visited Ukraine last year made objective assessments, and there wasn’t a single clause in their findings about the cancellation of the Euro 2012 in Ukraine. All their remarks and recommendations are only given so that we will prepare better for the event.
What will be built in place of the Troitsky mall?
Its dismantling began on March 20. Now the final dismantling project is being coordinated because the Troitsky center is a very complex structure with three underground floors. In accordance with the signed memorandum, the ground section is being dismantled and the underground one will be left intact. It will harmonize with the revamped Olympic complex. In place of the Troitsky mall there will be a sports square, an open area without any structures.
It’s no secret that there are practically no sports grounds left in Ukraine where people can engage in sports for free. What is your ministry planning to do to ensure that when foreign visitors come for the soccer championship in 2012 they will see healthy, fit Ukrainians?
This is the ministry’s highest priority. We’re planning to develop the sports infrastructure so that anyone will be able to engage in sports, as well as to encourage people to take up sports. We all know that the health of a nation depends on physical culture. A program for the construction of sports grounds has been in place for almost three years. During this period some 1,500 were built, but we need a great many more, so this year all local budgets include sports infrastructure development programs. In 2005, central budget appropriations for the construction of sports facilities amounted to 18 million hryvnias, and this year they total 280 million.
In addition, there are plans for the construction of “ice palaces,” playgrounds, and swimming pools. We have submitted a program to the Cabinet of Ministers for the development of children’s and youth sports schools. We have made arrangements with the Ministry of Education for the implementation of a joint program for the renovation of school gyms and adjacent sports grounds. Our ministry has prepared a new bill “On Physical Culture and Sports,” which sets out social standards of providing the population with sports facilities. The nationwide project “Sports for All: Everyone’s Concern” was launched on April 1. It calls for stepping up the government’s activity to bring order to all sports facilities.
Sociological studies show that employment, adequate salaries, and housing are the greatest problems for the younger generation. Whereas the Euro 2012 promises to partially solve the employment problem in Ukraine, the housing problem remains acute, and youth loan waiting lists are so long that a person can remain on those lists until the age of retirement. How is this problem being resolved?
Our ministry and the State Fund for Youth Housing Construction are working on the “Accessible Housing for Young People” section of the program “Accessible Housing.” The youth loans system primarily envisages state funding, but this year’s budget appropriations will be enough for up to 10,000 loans. Meanwhile, 120,000 young families are on waiting lists. Therefore, loans for young people cannot completely solve the housing problem. The only solution is through the national program “Accessible Housing,” which envisages the construction of social housing, changes to the principles of commercial construction projects, and lower interest rates.
How can we set young people on the path of community activism and interest them in taking part in running the state?
There are 140 national and over 400 regional youth organizations in Ukraine, but altogether they embrace no more than five percent of young Ukrainians. This year 15 million hryvnias have been allocated to support youth organizations. We are channeling this money into programs aimed at stimulating the youth movement.
My final question concerns a problem whose importance cannot be overstated: juvenile alcoholism.
First and foremost, all ads and commercials advertising alcoholic beverages and cigarettes must be banned. Owners of retail outlets found to be selling cigarettes and alcohol, including beer and low-alcohol drinks, to under-age customers must be severely punished. Also, we must keep our children busy after school by having them attend hobby groups, sports clubs, and so on. At one time, the financing of the network of sports facilities was transferred from the central to local budgets. That’s why we have lost almost the entire sports infrastructure. Now we must restore it.
Also, I think we should enhance parents’ responsibility for their children’s wrongdoings, for example, by passing a bill forbidding parents to leave children younger than 10 at home alone and forbidding them to allow children to stay out between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. In cases of juvenile crimes, it is the parents who must be punished in the first place for failing to raise their children properly.
