EURO 2012 football championship held between 8 June and 1 July 2012 was hosted by Poland and Ukraine and the two countries have managed to be successful in terms of image and tourism. According to the official website for the promotion of Poland, 81% of the foreigners which visited the country during the football championship said they would come back and most of the participants to polls said that they would recommend a friend to visit Poland, 60% of them being at their first visit in the country. Public transport in the host cities were positively assessed by tourists in both countries.
In this period, Ukrainian Railways have carried 5.4 million passengers at a daily average of 20,000 passengers and introducing 24 additional trains, while Intercity trains have carried 150,000 passengers during the EURO 2012. Also, PKP Intercity introduced 50 additional trains.
The organisation of such an event imposes challenges to the authorities who have to provide an efficient transport system which meant the allocation of infrastructure investments.
The European Football Championship is a stimulus for the economy of both Poland and Ukraine, especially in civil engineering and tourism. There are challenges which need to be appropriately approached, especially for the optimisation of the transport infrastructure. Therefore, there are and there will still be many investment and economic growth opportunities. The infrastructure development requires support and the EURO 2012 facility presented greater challenges than in other sectors as the rehabilitation and construction of the network requires state funding. For example, in railway transport, it is necessary to ensure transport services prior the event and during the event.
Infrastructure investments, including sports facilities, hotels, as well as transport (road, railway and air) amounted to EUR 38 Billion in the two countries for which the event was not just one of popularity, but an opportunity to take a significant step towards investments to reduce the financing gap in transport infrastructures. Most investments have been dedicated to infrastructures. “EURO 2012 ended, but the modernisation of the country will continue. We will have to focus on transport cooperation projects and we will have to increase direct investments. In the past 2 years we have initiated and concluded more projects than in 20 years. This because we have not invested to much in infrastructure so far”, declared the Ukrainian PM Mykola Azarov. Over 73% of Ukraine’s investments have been directed to transport infrastructures and Poland allocated around EUR 21 Billion, the projects including the construction of new terminals in airports and the modernisation of railway stations. Also, Ukraine has launched the first high-speed line that links the cities of Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv and Donetsk.
According to experts, using state and private investments, Poland has allocated around EUR 20 Billion since 2008 in the modernisation of infrastructure (the equivalent of 1.3% of the GDP), while Ukraine around EUR 9 Billion, the GDP percentage being, however, higher (1.7%).
In the railway sector, Poland has massively invested in the modernisation of main lines connecting the cities where the Football Championship took place, in the construction of the second underground line in Warsaw, as well as in the construction of stations and “continues to invest around EUR 97.7 Million by the end of the year. EUR 23.7 Million have been allocated by the state , EUR 41.5 Million from PKP funds and EUR 64.2 Million from European funds”, announced PKP spokesman, Lukasz Kurpiewski.
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