VIENNA, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Austrian Federal Chancellor and Minister for Sport Affairs Alfred Gusenbauer and Samuel Schmid, who is Sport Minister and Minister for National Defence of Switzerland, both expressed their satisfactions about the preparations of the European Football Championship 2008 (EURO 2008).

    Austria and Switzerland are both host countries for the coming EURO 2008. Gusenbau said in a press conference held in Vienna on Friday that "the collective preparations between Austria and Switzerland are running quite well now ".

    All of the preparations are expected to be finished on time.

    Although both of the governments are spending quite a lot of money for the preparations on this event, Gusenbauer said, "we consider them not simply as expenditures, but as investment" for the future.

    Austria expects that an added value of nearly 350 million euros can be realized by EURO 2008, and hopes that the gross domestic product (GDP) will accordingly increase by approximately 0.15%.

    In the meantime, Schmid also expressed satisfaction with the "good spirit of cooperation" between Austria and Switzerland.

    The opening match of EURO 2008 is scheduled for June 7, 2008 in Basel of Switzerland. After 22 days' competition and 30 matches, the final will take place in Vienna.