KIEV, Nov. 13 – Ukrainian lawmakers on Wednesday failed to approve a bill to let jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko seek medical treatment in Germany, jeopardizing Kiev’s planned historic deals with Brussels later this month.

However, scrambling to keep the door open, European leaders extended the deadline by six days, giving Ukraine a chance to approve the bill at the next session on November 19.

“Time is running out,” Pat Cox, a former president of the European Parliament, and Aleksander Kwasniewski, a former president of Poland, two European politicians appointed by Brussels to make sure Ukraine complies with conditions for signing the deals, said in a statement.

“The mission urges all parties involved to constructively use the short time available to reach an historic consensus that could result in a successful summit in Vilnius,” Cox and Kwasniewski said.

Parliament held an emergency session on Wednesday to try to approve last remaining bills ahead of the summit between the EU and Ukraine in Vilnius, Lithuania, on November 28-29.

The session, however, was quickly closed by Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Rybak, after pro-government and opposition groups had failed to find a compromise over the Tymoshenko bill.

A special 13-strong ad hoc committee has been working for the past three days to find the compromise, but the parties have failed to agree on wording of the bill.

Opposition lawmakers said the bill must contain the wording of ‘conditionally released,’ while pro-government lawmakers insisted on the wording of ‘released for travel for treatment with a break in imprisonment,’ according to Ihor Yeremeyev, an independent lawmaker who is a member of the ad hoc committee.

The difference in the wording suggests that pro-government lawmakers insist on Tymoshenko returning back to prison in Ukraine after finishing her medical treatment in Germany.

Yeremeyev called on the opposition and pro-government lawmakers to find the compromise over the next six days for the sake of singing the political association and free trader agreements with the EU.

“In fact, the first and the second options are both acceptable for Europe,” Yeremeyev said.

“I want to tell my fellow lawmakers: no one should try shifting the blame for the failure of the signing of the deals to opponents,” Yeremeyev said. “It is our common responsibility to the Ukrainian people.”

Anatoliy Hrytsenko, a member of the opposition Batkivshchyna group in Parliament, said opposition lawmakers should approve a tougher bill suggested by the pro-government lawmakers in order to secure the deals.

“I am convinced for the sake of signing of the deals we, the opposition, now have to vote in favor of any bill concerning Tymoshenko to merely make sure that it allows her to leave for the treatment so that this question is not a hurdle for the success in Vilnius,” Hrytsenko said.

Two other bills that need to be approved next week include a draft law on the public prosecutor’s office and a draft law amending the law on the parliamentary elections.

Both were successfully approved by Parliament in the first reading last week and are nor expected to pose serious problems when lawmakers set to vote for them next week. (tl/ez)