EURO 2012 vs. Sustainable Development

The term sustainable development is well defined, however we are still in search for its proper practical interpretation. This also relates to the sport. Sport events like Olympic Games or the World Cups are the huge events which can have the large, negative influence on the environment. Therefore the efforts are undertaken to organize such events to ensure that this influence will be the smallest. The previous European Football Cup, organized by Austria and Switzerland, has showed that it is possible to reduce the Carbon Footprint of these events and prepare them in line with the sustainable development principle.

The analysis of the preparations of EURO 2012 in Poland shows that the country has not draw out conclusions from the experiences of EURO 2008. There is a lack of environmental questions in the Polish public debate about championships, the sustainable strategy has not been prepared, the environmental objectives has not been defined. It can be recognised that the constitutional principle of the sustainable development in Poland is understood in the very narrow way, as the realization of environment protection projects and not as the integration of environmental aims to the strategy of the socio-economic development.