You're reading: Tymoshenko to reapply for permission to travel to Brussels

Editor's Note: The following is a statement issued on Jan. 26 by the press service of Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

The Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko – Batkivshchyna has announced that its leader Yulia Tymoshenko will reapply today to the Prosecutor Generals’ Office of Ukraine for permission to travel to Brussels.

Yesterday Ms Tymoshenko was refused permission to travel to Brussels at the invitation of President Wilfried Martens and Secretary General Antonio López Istúriz of the European People’s Party (EPP) and Bence Bauer, the Chairman of European Democrat Students (EDS).

The grounds for the refusal were due to Ms Tymoshenko not providing “certified” translations of the official letters of invitation, which were written in English.

The documents will be translated into Ukrainian and provided to the prosecutor’s office today. The former prime minister is not allowed to leave the capital and is under investigation for allegedly misspending funds received from the sale of carbon credits to Japan to pay state pensions. These are charges denied by Ms Tymoshenko and viewed widely by the international community as “politically motivated.”

“This is a game of cat and mouse being played by Ukraine’s authorities,” said Ms Tymoshenko. “Must we assume that they are now incapable of understanding English or is at they fear me meeting with Europe’s leaders and telling them the truth about the subversion of democracy in Ukraine?”

Ms Tymoshenko has been invited as a panel speaker at the 50th anniversary celebration of EDS on 1 February, 2011. The EDS is a centre-right student and youth political association representing more than 500,000 students and young people in 33 countries. Also, she has been invited to meet with the leaders of the EPP (from 31 January to 4 February) to discuss the political situation in Ukraine. The EPP is the largest political organisation in Europe with 72 member-parties from 39 countries, 18 heads of state and government (13 EU and 5 non-EU), 13 European Commissioners (including the President), and the largest Group in the European Parliament with 265 members.

A letter signed by the EPP President and Secretary General said that the EPP “finds alarming the recent actions of the Government towards the democratic opposition, In particular the EPP is very concerned with the criminal case opened against you.”