Builders of key projects for the 2012 European Championship could lose their contracts due to delays and building flaws, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned on Thursday.
There are growing signs of significant problems with the 55,000-seat National Stadium in Warsaw, being built by an Austrian-Polish consortium, and with delays in building a major motorway.
Tusk threatened ''tough measures'' in connection with both projects, which are key to Poland's preparations to co-host Euro 2012 with Ukraine.
The National Stadium was supposed to be finished by the end of June, but that timetable looks increasingly unlikely after the recent discovery of construction flaws in a staircase that would have posed a danger to users. That project is being carried out by an Austrian-Polish consortium led by Austria's Alpine Bau.
The National Sports Center, a state body overseeing the stadium building, said the stadium's first major event, a motocross event scheduled for Aug. 6, was cancelled because of the problems.
Also on Thursday, Sports Minister Adam Giersz said a football match between Poland and Germany on Sept. 6 at the stadium might have to be moved to Gdansk due to the construction delays.
Sections of the A2, a planned motorway between Warsaw and Berlin, are also facing delays because a Chinese company, COVEC, has fallen behind on payments to subcontractors.
Tusk warned that Poland could pull out of that contract completely and hand over the project to Poland's General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways.
The government has been warning COVEC to pay its bills immediately.
