Ukrainian president may be barred from Brussels meeting

“The European Commission passed Yanukovich an informal letter, warning him that they will not hold talks with him unless he reacts to the Tymoshenko case,” a source has told the Kommersant-Ukraine newspaper.

“He should take his decision by Tuesday or Wednesday,” the source added.

At a press conference on Friday, EC spokesperson Pia Ahrenkilde-Hansen said that “in the coming days a final decision will be taken as to whether [Yanukovich] is coming or not.”

Yanukovich is due in Brussels to discuss the EU-Ukrainian Association Agreement, an arrangement that gives non-EU countries trade advantages with EU member states.

However, the EU has spoken out strongly against the imprisonment of former Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko, who was sentenced to seven years in jail on 11 October for “exceeding her powers” by pushing through a gas deal with Russian gas giant Gazprom in 2009.

Catherine Ashton, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs said she was “deeply disappointed” by the verdict, sentiments echoed by Poland's foreign ministry, which described the trial as representing “the politicization of the Ukrainian judiciary.”

The EU is not calling for the immediate release of Tymoshenko, but the passing of a new law that changes the Criminal Code under which she was tried.

Nevertheless, new charges have already been brought against Tymoshenko, alleging that she had transferred debts from UESU, a private gas company that she had led in the 1990s, onto Ukraine's federal budget. (nh/pg)

source: AFP, PAP