You're reading: Foreign Ministry calling on European People’s Party not to come down to Tymoshenko’s fan club

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has called on the European People's Party "not to come down to a club of supporters" of the leader of the Batkivschyna All-Ukrainian Union and the former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko.

"We’d rather such a powerful and respected European political structure, as the European People’s Party, did not come down to a club of supporters of Yulia Tymoshenko, but were more of a union of friends of Ukraine as a whole," Director of the Information Policy Department of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Oleh Voloshyn told Interfax-Ukraine.

According to him, the Foreign Ministry hopes that the EPP will publish statements "not only to benefit the BYT," but to express themselves more clearly with regard to Ukraine’s European prospects.

"We would really like to see the EPP take the best of the fact that its leaders include representatives of the leading European states, the European Commission and other EU agencies, to see it make efforts to ensure that both Brussels and other capitals stop voicing the signals disappointing the Ukrainian people that Ukraine should not count on the guarantees of the EU membership in the near future," Voloshyn said.

If the EPP assists Ukraine in its rapprochement with the European Union, then the Ukrainian people’s attitude to it will be much more positive, Voloshyn opined.