EU 'reaching end of patience' with Ukraine
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
15.11.2013 09:41
A Polish MEP tells Polish Radio that the EU is "reaching the end of its patience" with Ukraine over the release of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko ahead of the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius.
"It seems that the Ukrainian government has already made a decision against European integration," says MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski.
The fate of the imprisoned Tymoshenko has yet to be settled, with Brussels telling Kiev that an associate agreement between the EU and Ukraine, scheduled to be signed at the summit this month, depends on her release from prison, where she is serving a seven-year sentence for "abuse of powers" while concluding an energy deal with Russia as prime minister in 2008.
As Datuta Isler reports, a vote scheduled for Ukraine's parliament to allow Tymoshenko to leave the country to seek medical treatment in Germany has been cancelled.
President Yanukovich made an unpublicised visit to Moscow last weekend and observers say that Kiev is torn between making trade and other agreements with the West and Moscow.
"I think President Yanukovych has not negotiated in good faith. There are limits to the EU's patience and understanding, which does not mean that the document will not be signed. It will be but not while this president is in office." he adds. (pg)