BRUSSELS — EU foreign ministers Monday urged Ukraine’s government to annul legislation curbing the right to protest and deplored the violence in Kiev sparked by its “repressive package” of measures.
The laws rushed through parliament last week “significantly restrict... Ukrainian citizens’ fundamental rights of association, media and the press”, the ministers said in a statement issued after a regular monthly meeting.
The Kiev government must “ensure that these developments are reversed and that its legislation is brought (into) line with Ukraine’s European and international commitments”, they said.
EU foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton, who chaired the meeting, said Ukraine had been added to the agenda of the talks as all were “very concerned by the legislation”.
“It is absolutely vital that all sides engage in dialogue,” Ashton told a closing press conference.
Asked about reports that Washington was considering sanctions against Kiev and whether the European Union would take that course, Ashton was guarded in her reply.
“The US has been talking about what efforts it can make to support people in Ukraine,” she noted, while the EU continued to press the government to meet its commitments to its own people.
An offer to Ukraine to sign an “association accord” with the EU — ditched by President Viktor Yanukovych at the last moment in November under Russian pressure which triggerd mass protests — was still open, the foreign ministers noted.
The EU “remains committed to Ukraine’s political association and economic integration” and to signing the agreement “as soon as Ukraine is ready”, the statement said.
In Kiev meanwhile, radical opposition protesters battled police in new clashes after bloody fighting Sunday left more than 200 people hurt.
The clashes, the worst in Kiev in recent times, marked a spiralling of tensions after two months of demonstrations since Yanukovych dropped the EU deal.
A special commission set up by the Ukrainian leader was due to meet representatives of the opposition on Monday for emergency talks but it was unclear if this could help ease the crisis.
Going into their meeting, EU foreign ministers said the Ukrainian government was clearly at fault.
The curbs on protests amounted to the “most solid package of repressive laws that I have seen enacted by a European parliament in decades”, said Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt.
“I think what happened... was a consequence of that package of repression,” he said.
“I absolutely deplore the violence that occurred,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said, adding: “I believe it is a mistake to have” introduced the protest restrictions.
The fresh tensions in Ukraine come as the EU prepares for what is expected to be a difficult summit later this month with Russia.
EU ties with Moscow have been fraught, with President Vladmir Putin widely blamed for sinking the EU association pact with Ukraine, a former Soviet state, as part of efforts to undercut Brussels’ influence in Eastern Europe.
