Poland's President Bronislaw Komorowski has said that the calls of European politicians to boycott the Euro 2012 European Football Championship in Ukraine are absolutely inappropriate, given the situation.
According to the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita, in an interview with a Polish television channel Komorowski said that through the organization of the championship Ukraine should reaffirm its commitment to European integration.
"I think that the calls for the boycott (of Euro 2012) are completely inappropriate, given the current situation in Ukraine. In different countries, in the old democracies, there were cases of conviction or prosecution of presidents, prime ministers… but this has never led to a boycott of such competitions," Komorowski said.
According to him, history knows only two cases of boycotts of Olympics – in Moscow and in Beijing, but they were connected with the war in Afghanistan and the events in Tibet, where blood was shed, where there were mass arrests, etc.
"The situation in Ukraine is not like that… Therefore, we can suspect that there is a completely different reason [for boycotting the championship]," the Polish president said.
The president also noted that Euro 2012 should have been a chance for Ukraine to demonstrate its commitment to integration into the Western world and to show Polish-Ukrainian friendship.
"In Poland it (Euro 2012) is supposed to show our achievements over 20 years of freedom. All this is currently jeopardized. I’m watching it with a great concern," the Polish president said.
In addition, during the interview Komorowski criticized talk of moving Euro 2012 matches to different locations or postponing them.
