Brussels, 03/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle announced, on Thursday 3 May, that member states do not wish to ratify the association agreement with Ukraine until the situation of the former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, improves. “With our European Union partners, we are unanimous over the fact that the EU's association agreement with Ukraine cannot be ratified as long as the rule of law in Ukraine does not develop in the right direction”, he explains in the German regional daily, Rheinische Post.
Guido Westerwelle has nonetheless refused to boycott the Euro 2012 football cup, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced that she will decide at the last moment whether to boycott the matches upon her arrival in Ukraine.
Poland's President Bronislaw Komorowski, for his part, warned on Wednesday 2 May against boycotting the sporting event, as this could be detrimental to Ukraine's European ambitions and push it further towards Russia. Speaking on the Polish TV channel TVP1, Komorowski said: “We feel that Ukraine is somewhere between choosing integration with the western world … or electing to participate in a customs union proposed by Russia”. “Poland”, he added, “has well-grounded fears that the boycotting of Ukraine might result in Ukraine choosing an alternative political route to the process of European integration”. Komorowski, whose country is the co-organiser of Euro 2012, also said that the Euro 2012 “is not the property of any politician”. “It is a chance for the nation, Ukraine, to present itself in the best light”. (CG/transl.jl)