Who is living in cloud cuckoo land?

An emergency debate on Ukraine took place in the European Parliament in Strasburg late on Wednesday night.

The debate had been directly prompted by the recent termination by Ukraine's Supreme Administrative Court of the mandates of two Verkhovna Rada deputies, including one belonging to Yulia Tymoshenko's defence councillor, Serhiy Vlasenko.

'Kommersant.ua" reports: "All the participants in the debate spoke of a sharp deterioration in the state of democracy in Ukraine, despite agreements reached at the Ukraine-EU summit."  [my bold lettering]

Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fule, expressing regret at recent events in Kyiv, including the blocking of opposition parliament, said, on the requirements put forward by Brussels: "As long as questions regarding Yulia Tymoshenko and Yuriy Lutsenko are not properly resolved, we can't really talk about the implementation by Ukraine of the readiness criteria for signing the Association Agreement."

In a nutshell, the Ukrainian leadership got their a**es kicked for their highly provocative and unjust action against Vlasenko.

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Meanwhile, Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced:

"The debate on the situation in Ukraine in the European Parliament held in Strasbourg on 13 March, was the third in the past 10 months..it reveals the high degree of attention this influential European institution dedicates to our state.

Such constant attention by MPs of the European Union is a logical manifestation of the support by the European Parliament for the aspirations of the Ukrainian people. Accordingly, there are high expectations of the European Parliament by Ukraine.

A key conclusion of the debate was the clear testimony of the willingness of the European Parliament to sign, with Ukraine, the Association Agreement during the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius in November this year.

We greet the realisation of the European Parliament of the importance and relevance of this Agreement to the interests of both Ukraine and the European Union. .."

[Your humble blogger wonders if when Yanukovych and his bozo advisers decided to embark on this harebrained plan to deprive Vlasenko of his parliamentary mandate they ever dreamt it would lead to an emergency debate in the European Parliament....and yet another blunder for hapless foreign minister Kozhara]

p.s. E.P.'s official news site declares : 

If Ukraine is still serious about signing an ambitious association and trade deal with the EU by November, then disturbing news such as the recent removal of two opposition MPs' mandates, is not the way forward, said MEPs in Wednesday's debate with Commissioner Štefan Füle, standing for the EU foreign policy chief.

Recent developments pointed to "old Soviet mechanisms being set in motion" and also a lack of commitment to solving systemic problems of democracy and justice, said MEPs. At the same time, they also criticised the unconstructive response of the opposition, which has blocked the work of the Ukrainian Parliament. 

MEPs reiterated the clear requirements set by the EU Foreign Affairs Council, which Ukraine was expected to meet by May, as a prerequisite for signing the Association Agreement and Deep and Comprehensive Trade agreement with the EU.

It will not be possible to sign these deals, which would be the most advanced ones that the EU has ever negotiated with a third country, unless the Tymoshenko case and other "selective justice" issues are addressed in coming months, they said.  [my bold lettering]

More optimistically, MEPs confirmed that they had heard the messages sent by the Ukrainian Parliament's resolution on EU integration, which was broadly supported by civil society.

MEPs cited the pro-European aspirations of Ukraine's young people and said that the EU should keep its door open to Ukraine, regardless of its President and government.

Some also said that the EU needs to be more patient and suggested that the deals to be signed could actually serve as tools to "fix the country".

More bullsh*t from Yanukovych

Moron Yanukovych claims that: "In no country in Europe, in no country in the world can you do this [i.e. be a parliamentary representative and simultaneously hold another job]

He made this idiotic statement today when unconvincingly trying to justify the disgraceful politically motivated treatment meted out to Yulia Tymoshenko's legal advisor, Serhiy Vlasenko, who was absurdly deprived of his seat in the Verhovna Rada by a law court ruling.

In Yanukovych's opinion, Vlasenko was responsible for the worsening of EU-Ukraine relations.

What Yanukovych said was complete bullshit.

For his information:

"Almost 20% of [British] MPs are earning supplementary incomes through second jobs, with some earning hundreds of thousands of pounds through external positions. The 'Sun on Sunday' reports that Parliament's register of interest shows 119 MPs have jobs outside of Parliament, and that Geoffrey Cox – Conservative MP for Torridge and West Devon – has earned £560,000 since through his work as a barrister since December. 

Only 315 out of 650 MPs registered no external income" [Source]

And

"Dozens of MPs are boosting their taxpayer-funded salaries by tens of thousands of pounds by taking second jobs...new analysis found that as well as drawing their MPs salary of £65,738, many are juggling their political work with jobs in careers such as law, consulting and business and making up to 13 times their annual pay." [Source]

If an MP's second job does not detract from his or her prime duty as an MP there is no problem, provided that the second job bears no relation to the MP's political influence on political decision-making.

All British MPs have to declare their outside financial interests in official registers of interests that are available for public scrutiny, e.g. by journalists.

In Great Britain, Vlasenko's behaviour would be deemed perfectly acceptable - especially as he claims he is receiving no payment for his services as Tymoshenko's legal defender.

Europeans horrified by Vlasenko ruling..and the end of democracy

The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, has asked the Ukrainian authorities to explain on what legal basis Mr Serhiy Vlasenko, an opposition deputy, was stripped of his parliamentary seat yesterday.

“I find it very unusual that a deputy elected by the people can be expelled from Parliament at short notice and without having committed a serious crime.

I have asked the Ukrainian authorities to provide an explanation for this action which may affect a fundamental principle in a democracy, the sovereignty of a people to elect its deputies”, he said. [Source]

Valeriy Portnikov explains why this week was the one when democracy came to an end in contemporary Ukraine: 

"If presidential elections take place in 2015, Yanukovych will lose, O.P.'s  clearly confirm this . He will lose even if Tymoshenko does not run. He would lose to Yatsenyuk and would lose to Klitschko. Right now he would probably beat Tyahnybok - but this is right now. By 2015, Yanukovych would lose the election to anyone - and he understands this better than Yatsenyuk, Klytschko, or Tyahnybok. 

And if he loses,  in just a few days such fraud, such corruption by the 'Donetski' will be discovered that there are not enough prosecutors and investigatorsin the land  to investigate, or judges to sentence the crimes. 

In contrast to millions of his fellow citizens, he has plenty to lose. That is why he is not going to lose. And those who have hopes for 2015, can relax. There will be no elections in 2015. The time when power in Ukraine changed as a result of elections is over."