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EU Ministers Tell Ukraine Time For Talk 'Over' On Tymoshenko Case

October 22, 2013
by RFE/RL

Two European Union ministers have told Ukraine 'the time for talk is over' and that action is 'urgently' needed for a deal on the release of jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski says that was the message he and Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt had at a meeting with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in Kyiv on October 22.

The European Union says a deal on the release of Tymoshenko, who the EU says was the victim of a political trial, is vital for signing a key agreement with Ukraine.

Ukraine hopes to sign an Association and Free Trade Agreement with the EU at an Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius on November 28-29.

Sikorski said a deal on Tymoshenko's case has to be reached by November 18, when EU foreign ministers will discuss Ukraine at a pre-summit meeting.

A lawmaker from Tymoshenko's Fatherland (Batkivshchyna) party says the former prime minister had agreed to a 'partial pardon' solution proposed by two European Parliament envoys.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk was speaking after meeting with Sikorski and Bildt earlier on October 22.

Ukrainian media reports say a 'partial pardon' would cut Tymoshenko's seven-year prison term by more than a half. It would also ban her from public office for three years and she would have to pay a fine of $200 million.

Yanukovych has said he would sign a bill submitted to parliament that would allow Tymoshenko to go abroad for treatment of a back ailment but has balked at pardoning her.

The European Parliament envoys -- former parliamentary president Pat Cox and former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski -- are continuing their mission to secure a compromise.

On October 22, they visited Tymoshenko in hospital in the town of Kharkiv where she is being treated under prison guard.

Sweden's Bildt says that 'if there is a green light from Cox and Kwasniewski, it will mean a green light for Ukraine.'

Tymoshenko was jailed in 2011 on charges of abuse of office widely seen as politically motivated.

Based on reporting by Reuters and unian.ua

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/tymoshenko-eu-european- parliament-urgent/25144936.html

Copyright (c) 2013. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.