EU special delegation visits Tymoshenko in hospital

Former European Parliament President Pat Cox and former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski visited former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko at a hospital for three hours on Feb. 5 as part of a European Parliament special observation delegation. Tymoshenko is sitting out a seven-year prison sentence. Afterwards, they didn’t address reporters and went directly to the Presidential Administration for an unscheduled visit with Viktor Yanukovych, news reports said, not mentioning what was discussed.

Zenon Zawada: The ruling Party of Regions is losing a lot from Tymoshenko’s incarceration. Hannes Swoboda, the president of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, said on Feb. 5 that it would renew cooperation with the Party of Regions only if it implemented the proposals offered by Cox and Kwasniewski.

Meanwhile, EU Commissar for Enlargement Stefan Fule warned Yanukovych that he ought not delay fulfilling the requirements set by the EU leadership for signing the Association Agreement in November, in an interview published on Feb. 5 by the Interfax news agency. A specific political timetable and November deadline is set for signing the agreement at the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius, he said. Regarding the Customs Union, Fule said that membership would deprive Ukraine of its sovereignty, and sovereign rights in its foreign trade policy.