EU Delegation: Teixeira received no permission for meeting with Tymoshenko

The EU Delegation to Ukraine has received no official information from the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine regarding the permission for a meeting between EU Ambassador to Ukraine Jose Manuel Pinto Teixeira and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. 

"In the late afternoon of July 24 the EU Delegation learned about the information published by the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine Web site whereby the State Penitentiary Service did not grant permission for a visit by Head of the European Union Delegation to Ukraine, Ambassador Jose Manuel Pinto Teixeira to Mrs. Yulia Tymoshenko. A few hours later such information was replaced on the Web site with another statement of the State Penitentiary Service according to which the State Penitentiary Service, as an exception, did grant permission for such a meeting," the EU Delegation to Ukraine said in a statement on Wednesday.

At the same time, the EU Delegation said that it had received no official information by the Ukrainian authorities on the abovementioned permission.

"Consequently, no possible date for the visit to Mrs. Tymoshenko was officially communicated to the EU Delegation," reads the statement.

In addition, as required by diplomatic protocol rules, in the morning of July 24 the EU Delegation officially informed the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry that Teixeira would be travelling out of Ukraine beginning from July 24. Therefore, he could not be expected to be present in Kharkiv on July 25 and pay a visit to Tymoshenko in the hospital.