Brussels, 23/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - During the morning of Thursday 23 January, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso spoke to Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych on the telephone, said a European Commission spokesperson, Olivier Bailly. During the call, Barroso “deplored in the strongest possible terms the escalation in violence, and the reports of violence against journalists, and he expressed serious concern about the reports of missing people”. “The use of force is not the response to the political situation in Ukraine”, Barroso told Yanukovych. At least five people are dead and over 300 wounded among the protesters, and 250 wounded among the police.
Call for immediate dialogue. Barroso urged Yanukovych to start a dialogue at the highest level with the opposition “immediately”. “It's the role of the president as head of state”, he added. “The EU is ready to help in the dialogue and in the de-escalation of the violence”, Barroso said. According to Bailly, Yanukovych is ready to hold a political dialogue at the highest level, as requested by Barroso. Furthermore, Bailly says that Yanukovych stated that he “did not plan on declaring a state of emergency in Ukraine”. So as to help in the dialogue, Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Füle will visit Kiev on Friday 24 (and possibly Saturday 25) January, and High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton could visit towards the end of next week. Yanukovych has said that he agrees to meet Füle and Ashton.
Barroso reiterated that the situation has not been stabilised. The EU will assess the possible consequences on EU-Ukraine relations. Before planning sanctions, “the priority for us is dialogue. We are ready to help and want a de-escalation in the violence, a halt to the use of violence against peaceful protesters and journalists”, said Bailly.
On 23 January, Yanukovych asked the president of the Ukrainian Parliament, Volodymyr Rybak, to call an extraordinary session at the start of next week “with a view to a swift resolution” of the crisis. He was also due to meet members of the opposition.
Merkel says sanctions not yet on agenda. In Berlin, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that she and her Foreign Affairs Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier believe that “sanctions are not on the agenda for the moment”. She has asked the Ukrainian government “to guarantee fundamental freedoms, and particularly (…) the right to protest peacefully, to protect the life [of demonstrators], and not to use violence”. “We are particularly concerned, and not only concerned but also indignant, about the way in which the laws that challenge these fundamental freedoms are so hastily adopted”, she said, stating that “it's a duty of every government to allow opinions to be expressed freely and this is not currently the case, or not enough the case, in Ukraine, in our opinion”. Steinmeier spoke to his Ukrainian counterpart Leonid Kozhara on the telephone on 22 January.
Meetings with government cancelled in protest. During its visit to Kiev on 22-23 January, the delegation from the Committee of the Regions cancelled its meetings with Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Vilkul, Minister for Regional Development Gannadiy Temnyk and Secretary of State Andrii Olefirov, as well as senior officials, in order to show its condemnation of the Ukrainian government's recent action - and this, despite the fact that the situation has deteriorated. “The EU is on the side of democracy and freedom. There is no room for exceptions”, said President of the Committee of the Regions Ramon Luis Valcarcel, who is leading the delegation. The delegation met the daughter of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Maidan representatives.
Valcarcel strongly condemned the escalation in violence, expressing his support for the Ukrainian people and their fight for freedom and human rights. “Given the current events and protests, the Ukrainian civil society needs the support of the European Union now more than ever. We need to keep all channels of dialogue open at all levels of government, encouraging Ukraine's government to achieve its declared objective of European integration and reiterating that the EU-Ukraine association agreement is still possible”, Valcarcel stated. (CG/transl.fl)