KIEV, Feb. 3 - European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule has said that the EU will continue to insist on the release of Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko and plans to step up its role in resolving the escalating political crisis in Ukraine, according to Tymoshenko's website.

"We continue to raise the issue of freeing Yulia Tymoshenko at every meeting and consider it a litmus test for the commitment to democracy and a symbol of the absence of rule of law in Ukraine," Fule said during his meeting in Munich with Yulia Tymoshenko's daughter, Yevhenia, and deputy head of the Batkivschyna Party and Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada European integration committee Hryhoriy Nemyria.