Commissioner returns to Ukraine to save deal

(BRUSSELS) - European Commissioner Stefan Fuele returns to Ukraine on Thursday in a new bid to save a key EU-Ukraine deal undermined by a rights row over the fate of jailed Yulia Tymoshenko.

With only a week to go before the planned signature of the far-reaching trade and political agreement, Fuele was to land in Kiev late Thursday for talks Friday with the authorities, the opposition and civil society, his spokesman Peter Stano said.

It will be the second trip to Ukraine this week by the EU's enlargement commissioner, who returned from a three-day mission there only Wednesday.

The announcement of his new trip came hours after Ukraine's parliament dealt a potentially fatal blow to the signature of an historic accord with the EU after refusing to vote legislation enabling ex-premier Tymoshenko to seek treatment abroad.

The European Union has criticised her jailing in October 2011 for abuse of office as an instance of "selective justice" -- the targeting by state prosecutors of opponents of the government of President Viktor Yanukovych -- and demanded assurances of an end to such practices.

It has also demanded reforms of the electoral and judicial systems in line with European values before signing the Association Agreement, which would see Ukraine turn its back on a customs union with Russia in favour of a free trade deal with the EU.

Fuele's spokesman refused to comment on the Kiev parliament's refusal to vote a bill that would have allowed Tymoshenko to go to Germany for medical treatment.

He said EU member states were awaiting a final report from two European Parliament envoys -- Pat Cox and Aleksander Kwasnieski, respectively former European Parliament president and former Polish president -- who have made 26 trips to Ukraine to report on cases of "selective justice".

Their report "will be decisive" in judging whether the 28 member states are "comfortable enough to sign the Association Agreement" at a November 28-29 summit in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, Stano said.

Earlier the head of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee said the Kiev parliament endangered next week's signature of the EU-Ukraine deal.

German MEP Elmar Brok said parliament's rejection "means that Ukraine does not fulfil the conditions.

"According to the rules, the agreement could not be signed," he said.

"Because of this vote, the last talks, and the recent attitude of Yanukovych, I don't have the impression that he still wants to sign the agreement," Brok said.

"I think this is because of Russian pressure."