Euro 2012 an Economic Boost for Poland

With just nine months left until Euro 2012, organizers and experts say host country Poland will reap long-term economic benefits from Europe's top international football showcase.

"Euro 2012 is a catalyst of positive change. It's a catalyst, and not just a goal in itself," said Marcin Herra, who heads PL.2012, the body overseeing a bewildering array of projects from stadiums to airports and hotels to highways.

Euro 2012 has meant far more for Poland than just 24 days of on-pitch action and spending by fans, Herra told the annual Krynica Economic Forum in southern Poland.

"It's an impulse, accelerating development of infrastructure. It's also a good opportunity to strengthen the image of the country," he said.

The tournament kicks off in the Polish capital Warsaw on June 8, 2012 and ends with the final on July 1 in Kiev, capital of co-host Ukraine.

In 2007, European football's governing body UEFA caught pundits out by picking Poland and Ukraine over favorites Italy and joint bidders Hungary and Croatia to host the quadrennial, 16-team championships.

It marks UEFA's first serious foray behind the former Iron Curtain. Euro 2008 took place in Austria and Switzerland, and France will host Euro 2016.

The communist era may lie two decades in the past, but Poland -- and to a greater extent Ukraine -- face infrastructure challenges beyond anything in western host nations and have been bedeviled by doubters.

Herra said concern about Poland's readiness was old news: next year would be crucial in shaking off what he said was a mistaken image.

"We would like to achieve the objective that, after 2012, Poland is perceived much better than it was at the moment it was granted the right to organize the championships," he underlined.

Euro 2012-related investment in Poland comes to 90 billion zloty (21.3 billion Euros, $29.9 billion), largely on transport which is crucial to cope with what is estimated will be up to 1.5 million fans.

Ninety percent is public money, with around half of that in turn from the European Union -- 2004 entrant Poland can tap funds destined to help poorer members catch up.

Most Euro 2012-linked projects are not sport-related -- less than five percent of funds are dedicated to football stadiums.

Officials have repeatedly stressed that transport needed overhauling to spur the economy, given the lack of a decent road network in this nation of 38 million, for example.

"None of the investment made in the context of Euro 2012 is because of the championships alone. We're building things because the country needs them anyway," said Herra.

"This is about helping us shift from the district league to the champions league," he added.

Jacek Bochenek, Euro 2012 project director at auditors Deloitte, echoed that.

"This has been one of the biggest projects in post-war Poland," he said.

"If we had had not been having the tournament here, hotels and motorways would have been constructed three years later and stadiums eight years later," he added.

Hosting Euro 2012 should therefore add 2.0 percent to Poland's gross domestic product from 2008-2020, analysts estimate.

"It doesn't seem a lot. But growth is growth," said Ryszard Grobelny, mayor of Poznan, one of Poland's four host cities.

Poland was the only member of the 27-nation EU to keep growing during the global economic crisis.

There are suggestions that Euro 2012's impact on the infrastructure sector may have acted as a stimulus program in all but name.

Future research might prove the point, Herra said.

But he added: "The issue is, what would the situation have been if we hadn't had so much public investment, at the time that private investment was dropping?

"Big events have a fixed date. The deadline is set independently, and you cannot change it. That is very important," he added.

"Euro 2012 is an external stimulus."