In their last push to persuade Ukraine's authorities to approve the three laws required to sign an association agreement, several senior European Union envoys arrived to Kyiv on Nov. 19.
But effort
of European Union Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Fuele, and special envoys Pat Cox and
Alexander Kwasniewski, might be wasted as Ukraine’s top officials showed no clues of being ready to do what it takes to sign a landmark agreement that would
cement Ukraine’s European integration.
Ukraine’s
parliament postponed the vote on the crucial laws to Nov. 21 – just a week
before the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.
“Fuele, Cox
and Kwasniewski in Kyiv is a signal that the EU is seeking to sign an agreement
with Ukraine. Ignoring these efforts would be a serious mistake,” warned Pawel
Kowal, a Polish member of European Parliament and chairman of its EU-Ukraine
committee, in his Twitter.
But it
seemed that Ukrainians are not willing to listen. Oleksnadr Yefremov, leader of
the Party of Regions faction in parliament, said at a briefing on Nov. 19 that
his party was not ready to support any law that would allow opposition leader
Yulia Tymoshenko to travel for medical treatment in Germany.
Tymoshenko
is serving a seven-year sentence since 2011, which in the west is considered
political. Her release is an essential precondition for signing the Association
Agreement. Yefremov said there is no law
on medical treatment of prisoners that would be ready for a vote.
Leader of
oppositional Batkivshchyna party Arseniy Yatseniuk warned that Ukraine might
waste its chance to move closer to the EU, which is supported by 58 percent of
Ukrainians, according to a Deutsche Welle poll released on Nov. 18.
“Viktor
Yanukovych’s personal fear of one person – Yulia Tymoshenko – can cloud our
European prospectives,” Yatseniuk said in parliament on Nov. 19.
He said the
opposition was prepared to vote for any law that would release Tymoshenko, and
withdraw most of its proposed amendments to the election legislation and new
bill on prosecutor’s office to speed up their passage in Verkhovna Rada on Nov.
21.
He also
urged Ukrainians to come out to the streets for a rally on Nov. 24 to pressure
the government to move towards the EU.
But the
authorities have made it increasingly clear that they are turning away from the
idea of European integration. Hanna Herman, a parliament member from the Party
of Regions, told the Kyiv Post in parliament that the European leaders need to
agree to sign association without Tymoshenko’s release. “All this story with
Tymoshenko is just a way to prevent Ukraine’s move to the European Union,”
Herman said. “It is clear that nobody agrees to release her (Tymoshenko) from
punishment.”
Prime
Minister Mykola Azarov has complained recently that the European Union was not
prepared to compensate the losses of trade with Russia that Ukraine would
encounter in case of signing a Deep and Comprehensive Trade Agreement with EU,
which is a part of the Association Agreement.
EU Trade
Commissioner Karel De Gucht, however, said during a recent visit to Ukraine
that that the EU would make hundreds of million euros of financial aid
available once Ukraine reached an agreement with the International Monetary
Fund. But the Ukrainian government has refused to meet the IMF conditions to a
loan.
Herman also
said that Tymoshenko’s “problem can be solved, but not through the way of
dictate.” Her message was amplified by General Prosecutor Viktor Pshonka, who
said at a briefing on the same day that the law regulating the release of
Tymoshenko has to “specify everything, including the commitments of the country
where the prisoner will be sent, and responsibility for this treatment, and
what should be done with lawsuits which exist against this person.”
His office
is investigating two other cases against Tymoshenko, including allegations of
murder of a business rival in 1996.
Pshonka also said that Tymoshenko owes Ukraine money “as a result of
damage caused by her crime.”
Kyiv Post deputy chief editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at katya.gorchinskaya@gmail.com
