Ukraine ruling party stalling on Tymoshenko proposals

Ukraine’s ruling Party of Regions failed to present its proposals on November 4 on arranging for the release of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, as well as endorsing a plan for her release as it claimed it would, the Kommersant-Ukraine newspaper reported on November 5. Instead, Party of Regions Parliamentary Faction Chair Oleksandr Yefremov addressed at a gathering of parliamentary faction and committee chairs other bills such as developing Ukraine’s viticulture and horticulture, trash recycling and state support for those with rare diseases. Parliamentary Chair Volodymyr Rybak said that he will bring for review 48 bills on Thursday, November 7, among them four items on treating prisoners abroad.

Meanwhile, Party of Regions MPs did not attend a committee meeting that was supposed to review proposals for Tymoshenko’s release, failing to give it the necessary quorum. Yefremov claimed they learned of the meeting too late. He also said a current investigation initiated by the Revenue and Fees Ministry on Tymoshenko’s alleged money laundering activity in the 1990s makes his party’s MPs less likely to support measures to arrange for her medical treatment abroad. This is the last week of parliamentary sessions before the EU Foreign Affairs Ministers Council is scheduled to meet on November 18 to decide on whether to sign the Association Agreement with Ukraine at the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius, Kommersant reported.

Moreover, Party of Regions MP Volodymyr Oliynyk pointed out that several of the ruling majority’s requirements conflict with EU demands. Among them is that the government receiving the convict getting treatment abroad must ensure his or her extradition, backed by a bilateral agreement and court rulings. The convict seeking treatment abroad must also pay damages before departing. In Tymoshenko’s case, a Kyiv court estimated her damages to the state at USD 185 million.

In response, opposition leaders accused the Party of Regions of undermining the Association Agreement. Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the faction chair of Tymoshenko’s Fatherland party, said that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych may have agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their October 27 meeting in the resort city of Sochi to abandon the Association pact. Another opposition leader, Oleh Tiahnybok of the Freedom party, said the Cabinet of Ministers at its last weekly meeting reviewed five agreements related to cooperation with the Customs Union. “Give an answer to Ukrainian society: what’s your orientation?,” Tiahnybok asked at the meeting of faction chairs.

Zenon Zawada: The Yanukovych administration and the Party of Regions have been playing a dangerous game throughout the process of negotiating the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement, so these last-minute shenanigans are of no surprise to us and they don’t affect our optimism. We think reaching an arrangement on Tymoshenko’s release is entirely realistic and the burden is on Yanukovych after numerous compromises offered by Tymoshenko and the EU.