Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov should not come to Brussels for a meeting of the EU-Ukraine Cooperation Council on May 15, due to the situation surrounding the sentencing of West-leaning ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said on Wednesday.
“[When] the Prime Minister of Ukraine announced he would come to Brussels, we said: ‘Stay home!’ It is a clear signal from our side that they have to change inside Ukraine. Ukraine was a model of democracy in 2004 and it has to become that once again,” Euronews reported, citing Rompuy.
“The way Ukraine is dealing with the former Prime Minister, Yulia Timoshenko, is just unacceptable. We have said this very clearly, very clearly to President Yanukovych,” Rompuy added.
"When once the Ukrainian prime minister announced intention to visit Brussels, we told him "don't come, stay at home."
Rompuy said he does not have plans to go to the Euro 2012 tournament. On Sunday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany would boycott the 2012 European Championships in Ukraine, which is co-hosting the soccer tournament with Poland. The EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said they would follow suit.
“I will not attend the tournament because there is no European team and Belgium has not qualified. But in any case, we can give a very strong political message,” Rompuy said.
Five EU presidents, including Germany's Joachim Gauck, said they would not be travelling to a summit in Ukraine’s Black Sea resort of Yalta this week. Kiev had to cancel the summit. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry explained the decision by the fact that some European leaders have refused to come because of the situation around Tymoshenko.
Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and heroine of Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution, was jailed for seven years in October last year for abuse of office in what Western governments said was a politically motivated trial. She faces another trial on embezzlement charges.
She denies wrongdoing and says she is being persecuted by President Viktor Yanukovych, who defeated her in the 2010 presidential election.
