Ukraine to host Euros despite EU boycott

UKRAINE: Ukraine on Wednesday insisted it was on track to host Euro 2012 football despite a growing number of EU politicians pledging to boycott the event in protest at Kiev's treatment of a former prime minister. Austria announced that no member of its government will be attending games in Ukraine in a gesture of solidarity with the jailed Yulia Tymoshenko, a day after European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said he has “no intention” of travelling to the country.

Media reports said Germany was considering a similar move, while the country's Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would decide at the last minute.

“UEFA (Europe's football body) has made no serious criticism about Ukraine,” Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Borys Kolesnikov told AFP in a telephone interview.

“The tournament is ready and on May 11 we will be transferring the control of the four stadia to UEFA,” he added, declining to comment specifically on the boycott threats.

Tymoshenko was jailed for seven years in October on charges of abuse of power while in office, after a trial that was bitterly criticised by the West as appearing politically motivated.

The controversy has intensified in recent weeks as the countdown begins to the championships, with Tymoshenko now in the 13th day of a hunger strike and claiming to have been beaten by guards at her prison in Kharkiv.

Poland, the co-host of the tournament, came out in strong support ofUkraine late Wednesday.

“In my opinion, calls for a boycott are completely inappropriate in terms of the current situation in Ukraine,” President Bronislaw Komorowski told Poland's public broadcaster TVP1.

AFP