MEP calls for Tymoshenko release

by Martin Banks

In an exclusive interview, German MEP Elmar Brok, who chairs the European Parliament's influential Foreign Affairs Committee, said she should be allowed to leave the country to seek medical treatment in a hospital outside the Ukraine.

Brok has said a landmark trade deal that Ukraine wants to sign with the European Union next month is strictly conditional upon her release.

He insisted that the European Parliament will decide on the signing of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU only after hearing a report of its monitoring mission in mid-November.

The mission, consisting of former European Parliament President Pat Cox and former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, was this week extended to 14 November by the Parliament´s Conference of Presidents.

The body, comprising political group leaders, also agreed to strengthen their mandate.

Brok, an European People´s Party deputy, said he also supports the mission´s proposal for Tymoshenko to be granted a partial pardon.

He said, "It is my belief that she should be allowed to leave the country to seek medical treatment in a hospital outside Ukraine."

The draft association and free-trade agreement had been on hold since March 2012. After taking office in 2010, Yanukovych had political opponents arrested and extended his power.

The judiciary was brought into line, while the economy was brought under the control of oligarchs from the president's circles.

It was only in spring 2013, after several political prisoners had been released - most importantly former interior minister Yuri Lutsenko - that the negotiations with the EU got moving again.

But it is still unclear whether the EU will sign the association agreement with Ukraine at the third Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, due to take place in November.

The EU is pushing for a reform of the judiciary and the electoral laws in Ukraine.

In particular, it is calling for an end to the politicization of the judiciary and has specifically criticized the imprisonment of Tymoshenko.

She was convicted for abuse of power in 2011, and has fallen ill with chronic back problems since her imprisonment: the German government has repeatedly offered her medical care.

But Kyiv has so far rejected any political solution - one reason why the long running Tymoshenko case remains an obstacle to healthy Ukraine relations with Brussels.

According to President Yanukovych, there would be no legal basis to transferring Tymoshenko to Germany but Brok said he rejects this argument and will continue to press for her release before the summit in Lithuania.

Brok continued, "I am aware of Ukraine´s position but I still maintain that Tymoshenko should be released from prison and should be allowed to transfer to a hospital of her choice outside of Ukraine."

Brok said that “from the outset we have said that before signing the Association Agreement, Ukraine must fulfil all the conditions – one of these is the resolution of the selective means in which the law has been imposed on Tymoshenko.”

He warned, "If Cox and Kwasniewski cannot produce a positive report to the European Parliament on 14 November then we will have a problem."

For years, Brok has been lobbying for a solution to the problem, emphasizing that without the release of Tymoshenko, there won't be a Ukraine-EU association agreement.

Brok is not only a vocal critic of Yanukovish, he is also a proponent of Ukraine's EU association.

The German politician said that without closer ties to the EU, Ukraine will "slip more and more under Russian influence and will fail to carry out democratic reforms."

He cites evidence of this fear by recalling how, at the end of August, Russia reacted to a Ukrainian EU-rapprochement by halting the import of goods from Ukraine.

Russia is putting pressure on ex-Soviet republics to join its own customs union instead.

Moscow wants to create a Eurasian trading bloc that could eventually rival the EU, but without the commitment to democracy and openness demanded by Brussels.

Kazakhstan and Belarus have already signed up. And last month Armenia signalled interest in joining the Russian-led bloc - surprising EU negotiators who were trying to forge closer ties with Yerevan.

It was for this reason that Brok, one of the longest-serving and most highly respected MEPs, said he decided to put the resulting Ukrainian-Russian trade war on the European Parliament's radar.

Kwasniewski, meanwhile, said this week that he is confident that the Agreement will be signed in Vilnius and that the question of Tymoshenko's treatment will be resolved "in the legal field in a way that will be acceptable to everyone."

Speaking this week, Kwasniewski, who was in Brussels to present the findings of the EU mission, said, "Most Ukrainians want this agreement."

His comments were echoed by EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fule who said he expected Ukraine to free the former PM for treatment before Vilnius.

Tymoshenko suffers from spinal problems and has received treatment from specialists while under guard at a hospital in Ukraine.

However, that still leaves open the question of whether she will be pardoned by Yanukovich.

While he may accede to her leaving the country for treatment, there are doubts about whether he would issue a pardon to such a hardened rival.