Opportunity lost
Wrocław's campaign to host Expo 2012 ended in failure. It received only 13 of 140 votes in the first round of voting held last week at the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) in Paris. The ultimate winner of competition, the South Korean city of Yeosu, got 68 votes in the first round. The Moroccan city of Tangier received 59.
The defeat was all the more dramatic since Wrocław's chances for victory had been estimated as quite good. Its prime location in the CEE region and attractive theme, "The Culture of Leisure in World Economies," were two advantages. World-famous Poles also contributed to promoting the bid, including film director Roman Polaƒski and Solidarity legend Lech Wałęsa.
Who to blame?
"As the Prime Minister of Poland, I feel 100-percent responsible for Wrocław's loss," Prime Minister Donald Tusk told the media. Neither he nor President Lech Kaczyński had appeared in Paris on the day of voting. The officials representing Poland included Wrocław Mayor Rafał Dutkiewicz, the former and the present Ministers of Culture, Michał Ujazdowski and Bogdan Zdrojewski respectively, and Sejm Speaker Bogdan Borusewicz. Meanwhile, Morocco was represented by a member of its royal family and South Korea's Prime Minister was present.
The absence of top Polish officials in Paris had no influence on the voting outcome, the head of the Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Polish Government for Expo 2012, Michał Tabisz said. "The voting countries made their decisions about who to vote for before arriving," he said, adding that more effort should have been put into lobbying much earlier. He stressed, however, that Polish officials made lobbying visits to as many as 90 countries.
Reasons for the loss
Mayor Dutkiewicz and others have suggested that an increase in the number of countries allowed to vote - from 98 to 140 - could also have influenced Wrocław's loss. According to what has been described as a "gentlemen's agreement" made last year, the contestants were not to invite any new countries to join the voting. In the weeks before the final verdict however, a number of new countries joined, allegedly invited by Poland's competitors.
However, there's no reason to believe that Wrocław's bid would have fared better had the number of voting countries remained unchanged, since it received nowhere near enough votes for the new members to have made any difference. Nevertheless, at Poland's request BIE has created a commission to investigate the circumstances surrounding the admission of new members the organization.
"We congratulate the winners but it is hard not to be critical about the form of this victory," Tabisz concluded.
Regardless of any possible violation of rules, the Polish bid's relatively small amount of funding for promotion likely influenced the outcome. Around zł.15 million was spent, whereas Korea apparently spent a comparable sum on video materials alone.
The loss does not mean that all of Wrocław's efforts were in vain. Mayor Dutkiewicz has commented that the theme of leisure might be used to organize some other event. Moreover, the contacts made during diplomatic visits made by Poland could soon bear tangible fruit, said Michał Tabisz.
