What does the organisation of the Euro 2012 football championships signify for Poland? We are building new stadiums – because we do not have them. We are building new roads – because we need them, we are building motorways - because we do not have them. But let us not exaggerate because someone might take it that Poland has no roads at all! The whole rest of the infrastructure indispensable for arranging such a big event as Euro 2012, represents a formidable challenge. But – and that has to be firmly stressed – Poland would have to take up these challenges sooner or later regardless of whether it would organize the Euro football championships or not!
True to our Slavic character trait we like to know the hour by which a job has to be completed and so I think the Euro 2012 has become the determinant of the time when a number of projects have to be realised that are very important for Poland and that will transform our country for the better in terms of development.
The most important thing that we have to do – both in Poland and in Ukraine – to organise Euro 2012, is to build stadiums. I shall put it this way: if these stadiums are built on time, Euro 2012 will take place in Poland and in Ukraine. Failing that we would have to give up organizing this event in favour of the Italians, Hungarians or Croats who competed for this honour along with us. In Ukraine and in Poland the starting hour to the Euro championships began earlier than elsewhere; it generally begins with the end of the previous championships – in that case it would be after the 2008 championships organised by Austria and Switzerland together. We had to start these preparations earlier because we do not have proper stadiums. We have to build four basic and two reserve stadiums. It is the intention of the government and of mine as the Minister of Sport that in our country Euro 2012 matches be played on six stadiums. If Kraków builds a stadium, and if Chorzów puts up a roof over the stands in its Śląski Stadium, they will have the chance of participating in the organization of the championships. Three Polish stadiums – the National Stadium in Warsaw and stadiums in Wrocław and Gdańsk – will be built from scratch. In Poznań, the championship matches will be played on the totally modernized Lech stadium.
On December 17, I announced my decision regarding the stadium in Warsaw where the opening ceremony of Euro 2012 is to take place. In selecting the location of the National Stadium in Warsaw, the Ministry of Sport and Tourism considered 15 different criteria, including the town-planning value, sports functions and multi-functionality of the complex, as well the communications faciltities, property value and maintenance costs of the future stadium. The construction of the new facility on the site of the former Dziesięciolecia Stadium does not represent a bigger risk than building it on the common nearby, and the plus of such location is that the new stadium will perfectly match the landscape and that 10 hectares of space will be available for other projects around it.

Recorded by: Jacek Świdziński