Brussels, June 8 (Interfax-Ukraine) - The European Parliament has drafted a common resolution on Ukraine in which the basic clauses remained unchanged – with calls not to use criminal law to prosecute the opposition and not to restrict the freedom of movement of political leaders.
A draft resolution, entitled "The cases of Yulia Tymoshenko and other members of the former government," was agreed upon at a special consultative meeting of political groups, which was convened in Strasbourg on Tuesday in order to find a compromise.
Earlier, the European Parliament submitted five separate draft resolutions for discussion (from five out of the seven parliamentary groups), and as a result of talks the positions of four groups were reflected in the joint draft resolution, in particular, the European People’s Party, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, the Greens/European Free Alliance and the European United Left/Nordic Green Left.
The Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) refused to support the resolution. As before, the European Conservatives and Reformists Group abstained.
The joint draft resolution by the European Parliament includes a clause that previously appeared in most draft resolutions in which the parliament warned the Ukrainian authorities "against the possible use of criminal law as a tool to achieve political ends, and calls on the Ukrainian authorities to ensure that judicial measures are not used selectively, and investigations, prosecutions and trials are held in maximum transparency."
A provision on the freedom of movement was also left in the document.
"Ongoing investigations of prominent Ukrainian political leaders should not prevent them from actively participating in the political life of the country, attending public meetings and initiatives all over the country and travelling to international meetings," the draft resolution reads.
The document also includes a provision in which the European Parliament "notes that the former Minister of Interior Yuriy Lutsenko remains in custody as of December 26, 2010; [and] expresses its support to the Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Nina Karpachova who has asked Ukrainian Prosecutor General to consider the possibility of changing preventive punishment to the one that is not linked to detention."
The parliament also "reminds the Ukrainian authorities that the principle of collective responsibility for the decisions of the government does not allow for the prosecution of individual members of the government for decisions taken as a college."
