Ukraines Foreign Ministry delays CEE summit in Yalta

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday it was indefinitely postponing a summit of Central and Eastern European presidents in Ukraine’s Crimean resort of Yalta on May 11-12. A representative said the change was due to the fact that a large number of presidents were unable to attend. Five presidents said in the last week they would not participate over concern about imprisoned opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko: Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Croatia and Slovenia. EurActiv reported that the presidents of Italy and Estonia also did not plan to attend.

Brad Wells: The “postponement” of the summit is the first tangible fallout of increasingly strained EU-Ukraine ties as a result of the treatment of Tymoshenko. Several European politicians are already floating the idea of a political boycott of Euro-2012 matches held in Ukraine. Most worrying is that international dialogue seems to be less and less constructive. We believe plans to finally get Tymoshenko medical treatment will stem some of the international criticism, but it does little to address deeper concerns about the Ukrainian government’s respect for the rule of law and persecution of political prisoners.