Brussels, 05/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - A delegation of Ukrainian experts travelled to Brussels on 5 December to meet European officials at a technical meeting with a view to preparing the reception of an “official delegation” - about which President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso and Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovch talked on the telephone. According to the Ukrainian mission to the EU - which picked up on the press service of the Ukrainian prime minister - this government delegation of experts, which is called a technical mission, has been mandated to begin the negotiations for preparing the implementation plan of the initialled EU-Ukraine association agreement.
In Kiev, EEAS Deputy Secretary General Helga Schmid and the foreign affairs ministers of Sweden, Carl Bildt, and Poland, Radoslaw Sikorski, held meetings with members of the government and opposition. During her speech to the OSCE ministerial meeting, Schmid urged “all stakeholders in this political process to work now towards reducing tensions. All civil rights and liberties, in particular the freedom of expression and the freedom of assembly, need to be respected. I encourage all political actors to establish immediate dialogue to facilitate a mutually acceptable resolution to the current discord. A peaceful and political solution is the only way forward for Ukraine out of the current situation”, she said.
European Parliament mission on standby. Elsewhere, the European Parliament mission of presidents Pat Cox and Alexander Kwasniewski is also on standby. If this goes on up to the Vilnius summit, the heads of state and government have asked that the mission of the presidents be prolonged. However, the European Parliament's conference of presidents on 5 December did not decide on the extension of the mission. The Parliament's spokesperson said that it would be necessary to wait and see how the situation evolved and the “the situation enables this mission to have a chance”. “If the conditions are not there, it's not worth the trouble”, he said.
The previous day, after a discussion with Cox and Kwasniewski, President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz said that he wanted to propose to the conference of presidents that the mandate of the mission change so that it help the dialogue between the government and the opposition, “in order to contribute with our means, as the mission of the European Parliament, to building a bridge between the two sides, to contribute to our call to avoid violence and to move towards dialogues”. Schulz said it was necessary to discuss both with the government and the opposition, while Kwasniewski recalled that Yanukovych is a “democratically elected” president. Cox stated that, for the mission to continue, it is of crucial importance that it has the legitimacy and the ability to work. The approval of the government and of the opposition is needed to continue the mission. A delegation from the EPP Group will travel to Ukraine at the end of the week. A debate on the situation in Ukraine will be organised in the plenary session of the Parliament on Wednesday 11 December.
Call for Western sanctions. Former prime minister, Yulia Timoshenko, called for sanctions against Yanukovych and his family because of the violence on 30 November. “Sanctions targeted at Yanukovych and his family are the only language he understands”, she said in a statement given by her lawyer. “As regards the EU, we call for the launch of anti-corruption investigations against Yanukovych and his family who have accounts and possess property in Europe”, the lawyer added. (CG/transl.fl)