Ugly situation blights not-so- beautiful game

EU leaders are right to put the pressure on Ukraine.

The fate of Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s jailed opposition leader, is prompting increasing numbers of European politicians to cancel trips to the country. Joachim Gauck, Germany’s president, said last week that he would not attend a summit of central European leaders in Yalta next week (11-12 May). Gauck’s colleagues from Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovenia followed suit; Estonia’s chose to attend another event, while expressing concern about Tymoshenko’s condition.

Momentum is gathering for a boycott of the European football championship this summer, co-hosted by Ukraine and Poland. Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, on Sunday (29 April) suggested that she, and members of her government, will stay away from games played in Ukraine unless the human-rights situation there improves. José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, jumped on the bandwagon on Monday with an announcement that he has “no intention” to go to Ukraine “at this point in time”. Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for justice, also said she would not attend any matches in Ukraine.

Whatever the political calculations behind these statements, European leaders are right to draw attention to Tymoshenko’s ruthless persecution, the appalling conditions of her detention, and the state of democracy in Ukraine. Football officials may wax lyrical about the joy of the game and its apolitical nature, but they are wasting their breath. European leaders cannot pretend that Ukraine is an unproblematic host to the tournament. “Sport is sport and politics is politics,” a spokesman for Ukraine’s foreign ministry said. If that was ever true, it is not true now. There can be no doubt that the regime of President Viktor Yanukovych would view the presence of foreign leaders as a silent endorsement of its policies. At the very least, Yanukovych would use it as evidence that his regime is in good international standing.

Staying away from a football game is no more than a symbolic gesture – especially in the case of people who would not have been expected to attend in the first place – yet symbolism counts in politics.

The boycott idea is only just gathering momentum, and it is too early to predict what will happen. But the Ukrainian regime has badly miscalculated, and at the worst possible moment. The football championship, which kicks off on 8 June, was supposed to give Yanukovych’s party a boost ahead of a parliamentary election in October. Tymoshenko’s jailing last summer was probably supposed to take out Yanukovych’s only powerful opponent. By pursuing Tymoshenko’s elimination from the poll, Yanukovych has now spoiled the propaganda value of this summer’s games.

There is no co-ordinated EU position on the matter; EU foreign ministers are scheduled to discuss the situation in Ukraine at their next meeting, on 14 May. But the political constellation in Europe suggests that Yanukovych’s regime better brace itself for some kind of co-ordinated censure. Tymoshenko, an accomplished political operator, recognised the importance of international networking early on, and as prime minister dutifully attended summits of the European People’s Party. (Her own party is an observer member of the EPP.) Those links are now paying off: the EPP, in power in most EU member states, has called for “decisive measures against the Ukrainian regime”. Such calls will only grow louder, and find more resonance, as Tymoshenko’s hunger strike goes on, and as more reports emerge of her apparent abuse in prison.

Boycotting this summer’s championships is the right choice for European leaders. But they need to be clear that they are defending a principle, not an individual. Tymoshenko may well have abused her office – the crime for which she has been sentenced to seven years in prison – and, in that case, deserves punishment. It is the manner in which she was prosecuted and jailed, and the broader malaise in Ukraine of which it is a symptom, that is the real worry.

UEFA, the European football federation that is organising the tournament, said that it has “no position” on the Tymoshenko issue and will not “interfere” with “internal matters”. That is not an option for the European Union’s leaders.