EU envoys will make another attempt this week to break a deadlock over jailed Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko that has jeopardised plans by the EU and Ukraine to sign a landmark trade and cooperation deal.
The envoys, former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and Irish politician Pat Cox, will return to Kiev for a session of Parliament tomorrow that will try again to pass a law allowing the 52-year-old Tymoshenko to go to Germany for medical treatment of her chronic back pain.
The case of ex-prime minister Tymoshenko, a fierce opponent of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich who was jailed in 2011 for seven years for abuse of office, has become symbolic for the EU of the “selective justice” that the bloc wants ended before it will sign the accord with Ukraine.
The EU envoys say tomorrow’s session is the last chance for Parliament to pass the law before a November 28-29 summit in Lithuania, during which the EU and Ukraine hope to sign the agreement that would mark a historic shift westwards for the former Soviet republic, away from Russia’s orbit.
Yanukovich signalled on Thursday that he would let Tymoshenko go to Germany, but only if she went there as a convicted person, falling short of the pardon some EU governments would like to see.
This implied that she would have to return to Ukraine to complete her sentence after treatment and would be ruled out from taking part in political activity.
Cox said the EU envoys were ready to spend “as long as is necessary, with as many people as is necessary, to do whatever is necessary to secure success”.
He said they were ready to help and advise Ukrainian politicians on finding a solution.
Parliament failed last week to agree on a draft law that Yanu-kovich has to sign into law for it to take effect.
Without movement on Tymo-shenko, the 28-nation EU is unlikely to sign the deal with Ukraine, depriving the Vilnius summit of its centrepiece and blowing a hole in the EU’s broader strategy of building closer ties with ex-Soviet states.
Trade deal hangs in the balance
Failure to sign in Vilnius would also be a serious blow for Yanukovich, who has set integration with Europe as his main foreign policy aim for Ukraine, a country of nearly 46 million people with a $330 billion economy.
But it would please Moscow, which has used trade sanctions and the threat of disruption to energy supplies to dissuade Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and other former Soviet republics from moving closer to the EU. Russia has urged these states instead to join a Russian-led customs union.
EU foreign ministers meet in Brussels today and will discuss Ukraine’s progress in implementing the EU’s conditions for signing the agreement.