EU waiting for Ukraine's final decision on Tymoshenko's treatment abroad - official
BRUSSELS. Oct 18 (Interfax) - The European Union is preferring not to comment on whether it would be acceptable to it if former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko could be allowed to travel abroad for medical treatment but still remain a convict.
The EU should take a very careful approach toward various signals coming from Ukraine, while it understands that different proposals have been made and different ideas are being mulled as to how to settle the Tymoshenko problem, a high-ranking EU official said in commenting on recent reports from Ukraine indicating that the Ukrainian parliament could pass a bill allowing convicts' medical treatment abroad and that President Viktor Yanukovych vowed to sign it into law.
The EU will wait and see until the Ukrainian authorities make their decision, he said.
The EU has always said that the Ukrainian authorities should make a decision regarding the legal proceedings in relation to Tymoshenko, but it has never gone into detail as to what exactly this decision should be, he said.
Yanukovych said on Thursday that the Verkhovna Rada could pass a bill opening the way for Tymoshenko to travel abroad for medical treatment and vowed to sign such a bill into law.
Tymoshenko was arrested during her trial dealing with the conclusion of a 2009 gas supply contract between Ukraine and Russia on August 5, 2011. Kyiv's Pechersky District Court found her guilty of abuse of office in concluding the contract and sentenced her to 7 years in prison on October 11, 2011. She was placed in a Kharkiv-based penitentiary at the end of December 2011.