EU To Consider Ukraine Soccer Snub

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(RFE/RL) — EU foreign ministers meet today in Brussels to consider whether to stay away from Ukraine when it co-hosts Europe’s biggest football tournament next month.

The action would be a protest to Ukraine’s jailing of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

Holland, which plays a game in Ukraine, has already said it will not send any political representatives to the European Champions being co-hosted with Poland.

The European Commission, the EU executive, has also decided to take the same action as the Dutch.

However, some in the EU want to use potential attendance as a bargaining chip with Ukraine.

The former premier is being treated for back pain and recovering from a hunger strike that she started in April after alleging prison guards beat her.

Tymoshenko is serving a seven-year sentence for her October 2011 conviction for abuse in office — a charge she denies and says was politically motivated.

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RFE/RL journalists report the news in 21 countries where a free press is banned by the government or not fully established.

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