Yuschenko urges government to work out annual action plan for Euro 2012 preparations

Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko has urged the government to elaborate and adopt a comprehensive action plan for 2009 of preparations for hosting the Euro 2012 finals.

"I demand that the government works out and adopts a comprehensive action plan," the president said at a meeting of the Euro-2012 coordination council on Monday in Kyiv.

Yuschenko noted that the last year's program of Euro 2012 preparations was fulfilled.

The president also noted that last year around UAH 250 million was assigned to the reconstruction of the Olimpiysky Sports Complex in Kyiv, almost UAH 1 billion was provided for the reconstruction of airports and work on the latter was 95% fulfilled, while last year's UAH 1.4 billion program for the construction and reconstruction of roads was 91% fulfilled.

At the same time, the head of state noted several problems, as well. The first of these is the construction of sports infrastructure. The president drew particular attention to the preparation of stadiums in Kyiv and Lviv.

"There is still no management to control the Lviv stadium's construction. Experts believe that the existing budget of the project is insufficient," the president said.

As for the Olimpiysky stadium in Kyiv, Yuschenko noted the swelling budget and the stadium's non-compliance with the UEFA security standards for holding events like the championship.

Regarding transport infrastructure, Yuschenko said that there are still problems with the preparation of the airports in Dnipropetrovsk and Lviv.

The head of state asked the government to report on the steps it will undertake to resolve all of the problems.