You're reading: Ukrainian parliamentarian: Komorowski’s statement on Tymoshenko case not EU position

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski's warning that former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's trial could obstruct Ukraine's integration into the European Union is not the entire European Union's position, said Ukrainian parliamentarian Ivan Popesku of the Party of Regions.

"Polish President Komorowski’s opinion could have possibly been influenced by European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek. On the one hand, Buzek is a Pole, and on the other, he represents the European People’s Party group. As is well-known, these are partners of Tymoshenko’s Batkivschyna party," the Party of Regions quoted Popesku as saying.

The Ukrainian parliamentarian mentioned European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso’s greeting to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on the 20th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence. "He [Barroso] clearly signaled that Ukraine may sign an association agreement this year, including agreements on a free trade zone and on visa-free travel," Popesku said.

"Therefore, I would not over-dramatize the situation. Moreover, Europe knows precedents, as a former prime minister of Iceland is currently under investigation on charges of incompetence. That is, he failed to properly perform his duties during the crisis, and the court is considering now whether this was done deliberately or not. An investigation has also been opened against a former prime minister of Croatia, who has been charged with abusing his office in pursuing his personal interests," Popesku said.

"And if the Polish president had assumed a principled position, he would have said the same not only about our former prime minister but also about the former prime ministers of Croatia and Iceland," he said.

Since no such statement has been made in relation to the former Icelandic and Croatian prime ministers, this signals that Komorowski’s opinion is not the entire European Union’s position, Popesku said.

Komorowski said at a recent meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych in Poland that Tymoshenko’s trial could hinder Ukraine’s integration into Europe.

"Ukraine has made serious efforts and achieved a lot on the way toward European integration. But there are some obstacles. And among such obstacles is definitely the trial of Ms. Yulia Tymoshenko, which a lot of European countries perceive as a politically motivated rather than a criminal trial, which damages Ukraine’s image," the Polish presidential website quoted Komorowski as saying in an interview with the Polish news TV channel TVP.Info.

It was reported earlier that Yanukovych paid a one-day working visit to Poland on August 30, during which he informally met with Komorowski in a presidential residence on the Baltic coast.

This has been Yanukovych’s first meeting with the leader of a Western country after Tymoshenko’s arrest.