Warsaw, May 25 (IANS) There will be no boycott of the Euro 2012 football championship in Ukraine and Poland, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said after talks with European Union leaders in Brussels.
Several EU leaders, including European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, recently announced that they would stay away from the Ukrainian leg of the Euro football tournament to protest the Ukrainian government's treatment of the country's imprisoned former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
Poland as an Euro co-host protested the boycott plans, which were, however, strongly backed by Polish opposition leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, reported Xinhua.
Tusk said he had urged against the boycott plans at an informal EU summit in Brussels Wednesday and had "received acceptance for the position that there will be no boycott of Euro 2012".
"For me the important thing was to get this matter off the table," Tusk said in Warsaw. He added that he had nonetheless urged "restraint" in contacts with Ukrainian government leaders during the Euro event.
"We can limit ourselves to supporting our teams. There's no need to hug state leaders whom we believe to be violating standards," Tusk opined.
Tusk also appealed for friendly treatment of foreign Euro fans arriving in Poland.
