Ukraine: European Parliament wants adequate medical treatment for Timoshenko

European Parliament calls on politicians to use Euro 2012 football championship to visit political prisoners.

Yulia Timoshenko must get access to adequate medical treatment, the European Parliament demanded today, criticising the Ukrainian Government's treatment of the opposition politician. The Ukrainian Government must allow German doctors from the Berlin Charité hospital to give her medical assistance, MEPs said in a cross-party Resolution adopted today by a broad majority.

MEPs also called on politicians attending the Euro 2012 football championship to use the occasion to visit political prisoners, highlighting the Ukrainian Government's disregard for basic human rights and the rule of law.

Joseph Daul MEP, Chairman of the EPP Group, who invited the daughter of the jailed former Ukrainian PM, Eugenia Timoshenko, to address the EPP Group this week, said: "First and foremost we call for an immediate start of medical treatment of Yulia Timoshenko, by trustworthy doctors of her choice. In the European Parliament Resolution, we call for the unconditional and immediate release of political prisoners in the Ukraine. This year is election year in the Ukraine and we will evaluate the elections as free and fair based on whether Yulia Timoshenko and other political prisoners are able to participate without restraint."

The Chairman of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, Elmar Brok MEP, said: "Europe must show the red card to the Ukrainian Government for its systematic disregard of human rights and the rule of law. Politicians travelling to the Euro 2012 football championship should make clear that a systematic persecution of opposition politicians and an utter disregard for democratic rights and the rule of law is unacceptable. Every official visitor to the UEFA championship should try to visit a political prisoner in the Ukraine and publicly recognise that a fair election is, under the current leadership, not possible."

"We condemn the use of selective justice used for the oppression of the political opposition in Ukraine. And as in sport, where clear rules and fair play are applied, we demand the same in the political competition in Ukraine", said Zuzana Roithová MEP, former Czech Minister of Health, who recently visited the Ukraine.