By Martin Banks - 22nd January 2009
There have been concerns, particularly about transport infrastructure
Janusz Onyszkiewicz
Polish MEP Janusz Onyszkiewicz says he is confident his country will be ready to host the 2012 European championships.
But the ALDE group deputy warned that some question marks still remain over the ability of Ukraine to co-host the tournament.
Speaking in the European parliament on Wednesday, Onyszkiewicz was responding to ongoing concerns that both countries will not be ready to stage the prestige event.
Last September, Uefa, the sport’s European governing body, told the hosts they needed to speed up work on building stadiums and improve road and transport infrastructure.
Italy was widely expected to win the Uefa vote when it was announced in Cardiff in April 2007, with another joint bid from Croatia and Hungary also in the running, and organisation's president Michel Platini was forced to deny that Italy had been earmarked as replacements.
Platini, however, insisted there was "no back-up plan" in place.
Onyszkiewicz said, "There have been concerns, particularly about transport infrastructure and also border crossings. I am confident about Poland’s ability to host the tournament but some uncertainty does remain about Ukraine.”
Onyszkiewicz, a former government minister and deputy chairman of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, was speaking at the launch of an exhibition on the upcoming tournament.
EU regional affairs commissioner Danuta Hübner, who is also Polish, and parliament’s president Hans-Gert Pöttering, were among the speakers at the event.
Meanwhile at an earlier event on Wednesday, Hübner said the European commission would be "working hard" in the remaining months of its mandate.
She told journalists that any thoughts of the executive winding down as it approaches the end of its five-year term were groundless.
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