Ukraine Lawmakers Remain Deadlocked Over Tymoshenko Bill

Former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski (second left) and former European Parliament President Pat Cox (right) attend a session of the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv on November 8.

Ukrainian lawmakers have again failed to reach agreement on legislation that would allow jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to seek medical treatment in Germany, despite the personal presence in parliament of special EU envoys.

On November 7, Poland's former President Aleksander Kwasniewski and former European Parliament President Pat Cox gave parliament one week to pass the legislation if Kyiv is to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union later this month.

After meeting with parliamentary faction leaders on November 8, Kwasniewski said negotiations were proving "complicated."

Later the same day, the EU envoys visited Tymoshenko in hospital in the city of Kharkiv where she is being treated under prison guard.

Tymoshenko was jailed in 2011 for seven years on abuse-of-office charges seen by the West as politically motivated.

EU foreign ministers are to assess on November 18 whether Kyiv is ready to sign an Association Agreement at the EU's Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius on November 28-29.


Based on reporting by AFP and Interfax