Brussels, 02/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - The German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, is threatening to veto ratification of the EU-Ukraine association agreement because of the way the country's former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, is being treated in prison. On German television, he said in response to a question about Tymoshenko that Germany says that the EU-Ukraine association agreement cannot be ratified if the rule of law is not clearly in place in Ukraine.
German media say that Berlin may veto Euro 2012 football matches, but Westerwelle said the matter had not been discussed and would not be settled immediately. He said it would not be helpful to announce what one was going to do in six weeks' time and the most important thing right now was to help Tymoshenko. On Monday 30 April, Ukraine warned Germany that boycotting the Euro 2012 championships was the type of behaviour seen during the Cold War. A spokesperson for the Ukrainian foreign minister, Oleg Volochine, said that he didn't want to believe that German politicians were capable of returning to Cold War methods and using sport for political ends, pointing out that no German politician or member of the government of any other country had talked about boycotting important sports events.
Several European politicians, however, have cancelled their planned visits to Ukraine because of the way Tymoshenko is being treated. Volochine said on Monday that at least five presidents of European countries (Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia and the Czech Republic) have refused to attend a meeting of central and East European country presidents in Yalta next week. The president of Estonia has also announced that he will not be attending the Yalta meeting. (CG/transl.fl)