Brussels, 14/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - During a debate on Ukraine on 13 March, MEPs again expressed their concern at the situation in the country, calling for progress. The signing of the association agreement could take place at the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius in November. In Gunnar Hökmark's opinion (EPP, Sweden), it is “very important to have an unambiguous message”. “(President) Yanukovych's regime is not doing what it should to respect its commitments (…) We need a firm response from the EU to make Ukraine understand that it does not belong to our Europe in these conditions”, he added. In the view of his colleague Libor Roucek (S&D, Czech Republic), “we need to address the government, the party in power and the opposition, to tell them that neither withdrawing the mandate of members of parliament (…) nor blocking work at the parliament are acceptable attitudes in a democracy”. Kristian Vigenin (S&D, Bulgaria) called on the European Parliament “to export it ability for compromise to Kiev”.
In Kriistina Ojuland's view (ALDE, Estonia), the EU should ensure that its partners share its values. “Ukraine must not continue to hesitate between the EU and the customs union (with Russia). The EU must do everything it can to leave the door open to Ukraine”, she added. While Rebecca Harms (Greens/EFA, Germany) criticised the court prosecution of the opposition and their imprisonment, saying that “this is the return of a Soviet principle”, Ewald Stadler (NI, Austria) spoke of Ukraine's role in supplying gas to the EU and in resolving the conflict in Transnistria.
European Commission's progress assessment in the spring. Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Füle said that the Commission is working on a document which he hopes to send to the Council “at the beginning of spring” with “the respective request and recommendation” regarding the association agreement. This assessment will focus on what Ukraine is doing to fulfil the conditions with a view to being ready to sign the agreement. Füle is also expecting, for next month, the European Parliament mission's report on cases of selective justice. “Unless the cases of Yulia Tymoshenko and Yuriy Lutsenko are properly addressed and there is sufficient confidence that there will be no more use of selective justice, we could hardly talk about conditions that are conducive for signing the association agreement”, he added. Füle stated that, since the summit on 25 February, several developments have not been going in the right direction, and he mentioned inter alia the cancellation of the mandate of members of parliament for contestable reasons, including the mandate of Serhiy Vlasenko and also of Tymoshenko's lawyer. (CG/transl.fl)