Brussels, 10/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - Speaking on Thursday 10 May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel compared Ukraine and Belarus, pressing home the fact that the citizens of these two states neighbouring on the EU still lived under a regime of dictatorship and repression. Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle reiterated Germany's proposal to take in the former Ukrainian prime minister, Yulia Tymosehnko. He said: “We want Ms Tymoshenko to receive appropriate long-term medical care” and went on to add that “Ukraine must fully commit to democracy and rule of law”.
Furthermore, Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Füle informed the Ukrainian minister for the economy, Petro Poroshenko, on Tuesday 8 May, by Twitter, that the politically motivated justice and treatment of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and of her former colleagues is unacceptable and an obstacle to signing the association agreement. On Wednesday 9 May, Tymoshenko ended her hunger strike begun on 20 April to protest against the violence that she had endured in prison, and was transferred from the prison in Kharkiv to a hospital in the town where she is being treated for several slipped discs. It is reported that Tymoshenko agreed to be admitted to hospital on condition that she be treated by a German doctor. (CG/transl.jl)