Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today we hold the presentation of the football championship Euro-2012.  This event has place 20 days before the beginning of the Euro-2012 in Ukraine (Netherlands – Denmark in Kharkiv and Germany – Portugal in Lviv, 9 June) and 40 days before the final game of the championship, which will be held in 1 July 2012 in Kyiv.

Ukraine is ready for the Euro-2012. According to the statement of the President of Ukraine V.Yanukovych, which was delivered in his interview yesterday, a few people belived that Ukraine would manage to prepare itself properly and in time for the Euro-2012. He also added: “when I look at these new stadiums, hotels, roads I realize that the respect and confidence to our state will definitely increase”.

This is an outstanding event for Ukraine and Poland since for the first time the European football championship will be held on the territory of two Eastern European states. At the same time, it will be the third competition in the history of the European football championships which was hosted by two countries. In 2000 the championship of Europe was held in Belgium and Netherlands. In 2008 – in Austria and Switzerland. This championship will be the last one, in final part of which 16 teams will participate. Starting from the Euro-2016 the number of teams will be increased to 24.

According to the preliminary calculations near 1 million persons will visit Ukraine during the Euro-2012. Four new airports are ready to welcome the football fans for each match, who will come to Ukraine to see the football matches.

On 2 May in Donetsk the new railway complex, which was built according to the European standards, is ready to accept more than 35 thousands of passengers daily.

On 29 May the new terminal D of the Kyiv airport “Boryspil” will welcome the first passengers of the international airlines.

In the frameworks of the preparations for the Euro-2012, 28 new hotels were built in Kharkiv for the quests of the championship.

In general Ukraine spent more than 12 buillion US dollars for the preparation for the Euro-2012. During Euro-2012 the city of Lviv will hold the large-scale art project “Fan ARTia”. The project will be held on the days when there will be no football matches. Each day of the art project will be dedicated to the separate sphere of culture: literature, rock, ethnic, jazz and symphonic music.

The preparation for the final part of the Euro-2012 and receiving the army of football fans from the different parts of the world are accomplished on the Olimpiysky National Sports Complex in Kyiv.

The national teams of Ukraine and Sweden will perform their first competition of the football championship on the field of the main arena of Ukraine on 11 June. The competition’s result will impact on the further championship perspectives of both teams.

We are the fans of the strong football team, which deserves to be a winner of this championship but we expect that our national football team will reach the highest results. All rivals of the Ukrainian football team are strong players and to gain victory in this competition will not be easy.

We consider that the Euro-2012 will become a good impulse for the communication between the people from the different countries of the world and all infrastructures prepared for the football championship will serve peoples of Ukraine and Poland during many further years. I your files prepared by the Embassy you have more information on Euro-2012 and some visas issues.

We invite Jordanian and other fans to come to Ukraine to see Euro-2012 matches.

Thank you for your attention and it is my pleasure to answer your questions.

Shukran.

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