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Nation    

US diplomat urges Kiev to pass EU bills
Journal Staff Report

KIEV, Nov. 14 – The United States has urged Ukraine to clear all remaining obstacles to a landmark trade and political association agreements with the European Union.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland said that Kiev should approve judicial and electoral reforms, and allow the release of jailed former Prime Minister Tymoshenko for medical treatment.

"We join the EU in urging Ukraine's leaders to make the right historic choice for their 45 million citizens to choose their children's future over the grievances of the past," Nuland said, according to a report by UPI.

Nuland spoke at the Atlantic Council, a think tank in Washington, as the U.S. government was joining its partners in the European Union in calling on Ukraine to take the necessary steps to cinch the deal.

The remarks come after Ukrainian lawmakers failed to approve a bill to let Tymoshenko seek medical treatment in Germany, jeopardizing Kiev’s planned historic deals with Brussels later this month.

European leaders moved to extend the deadline by six days, giving Ukraine a chance to approve the bill at the next parliamentary session on November 19.

President Viktor Yanukovych suggested Thursday that a compromise was needed between pro-government and opposition lawmakers to approve the bill. He also said that Tymoshenko should not get an exclusive status.

“My position remains the same: all citizens are equal before the law of Ukraine,” Yanukovych said on a tour to Zaporizhia region. “The rule of law first of all applies to everyone. No exclusive approaches, I believe this will never happen to any citizen. The Constitution is the same for all.”

A special 13-member ad hoc committee is currently working on achieving the compromise over the Tymoshenko bill, but little progress has been made so far.

Ihor Yeremeyev, an independent lawmaker who is a member of the committee, said the opposition lawmakers and pro-government lawmakers were playing blame game instead of striking the compromise. He said the commission was facing a “stalemate.”

As a sign of the stalemate, opposition lawmakers submitted a bill to Parliament that was not approved by the pro-government members of the group that almost guarantees that the bill will fail.

“I agree with some commentators who called this a ‘political circus,’” Yeremeyev said. “Very little time is left to find solutions to this Gordian knot.” (tl/ez)




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