The Dutch cabinet’s decision to send sports minister Edith Schippers to the Euro 2012 football championships is a missed opportunity to take the moral lead, according to several Dutch newspapers.

France and Britain are among the countries which will not be sending senior officials to Ukraine because of the country’s human rights record.
The Dutch cabinet agreed on Friday that Schippers should attend the Oranje matches because the treatment of jailed opposition leaderYulia Tymoschenko has improved and that she herself opposes a boycott.
Underestimation
By doing this, prime minister Mark Rutte has reduced the problems in Ukraine to that of a jailed politician, the Financieele Dagblad writes. But she is in fact a symbol of all that is wrong with the country’s human rights record.
Her position may have improved, the paper says, but only after all the commotion about the way she is being treated. And this offers no guarantee for the future or other victims of the regime.
When it appeared the Netherlands may boycott the event, there were angry calls as well. Why for example, was there no boycott of the Olympics in China two years ago? But a selective boycott is better than no boycott at all, the FD says.
Morals
Ukraine has been flirting with the European Union for years, the paper points out. A political boycott of its greatest sporting event by one of the founders of the EU would made it clear what standards are expected in Europe.
The Volkskrant says the Dutch decision to send a minister is a compromise.
The prime minister and crown prince are not attending but because of improvements in Tymoschenko’s personal situation, it is quite alright to send our sports minister. On the condition, of course, that she raises the human rights issue while she is there, the paper says.
A boycott can only be effective if everyone does it, without hesitation. If all of Europe’s politicians had avoided Ukraine, it would have been noticed. In deciding to go, the paper concludes, Dutch government has shown that it does not have principles. And that European unity is still a long way off.