The presidential commission on pardons could consider on Thursday, October 24, a petition on the release of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, which was filed by members of the European Parliament's monitoring mission, Pat Cox and Aleksander Kwasniewski, the Kommersant Ukraine newspaper wrote on Monday.
“This issue has not yet been discussed at a meeting of the presidential commission on pardons. The next meeting of the commission is scheduled for October 24,” a member of the commission, Party of Regions MP Serhiy Hrynevetsky, told the newspaper.
In addition, according to the newspaper, the Batkivschyna faction in parliament is developing its own bill to resolve the issue of Tymoshenko faction and plans to discuss the situation related to her leaving for medical treatment abroad at a faction meeting on Monday.
“Our guys were developing their own bill on this subject all weekend. We’ll decide on what we do at a faction meeting in the morning. On Monday, I will meet with the Czech president. In addition, it’s important for us that Patrick Cox and Aleksander Kwasniewski are returning to Ukraine,” Batkivschyna MP Oleksandra Kuzhel told the newspaper.
The EU Delegation to Ukraine reported earlier that the European Parliament’s monitoring mission led by Cox and Kwasniewski would make its 23rd working visit to Ukraine on October 21-22. The delegation said that “time to secure a viable settlement is running out” and that the “mission’s focus remains the achievement of the necessary conditions for it to report full compliance with the criteria set by the Foreign Affairs Council of the EU in December 2012 for the signing of the Association Agreement with Ukraine.”
