Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 45: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the degree to which the international community continues to monitor the treatment of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko; the extent to which she has received visits from international human rights activists on a weekly or monthly basis in the past six months; if her health and medical requirements are being adequately met; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33890/12]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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As the Deputy is aware, the case of former Prime Minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, is a matter of deep concern to Ireland, the European Union and the wider international community. I continue to urge the Ukrainian authorities, as a minimum, to facilitate all such medical and human rights related visits. I refer the Deputy to my previous reply on 16 May. Since then, Ms. Tymoshenko has had a number of visitors, including, among others, a visit by two rapporteurs on Ukraine from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in May. In June, former European Parliament President Pat Cox and former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski also travelled to Ukraine to monitor court proceedings involving Ms. Tymoshenko on behalf of the European Parliament.

The High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union, Catherine Ashton, has called on the Ukrainian authorities to ensure the full respect of the right of Ms Tymoshenko to adequate medical assistance in an appropriate institution and that the European Union Ambassador, accompanied by independent medical specialists be allowed to visit Ms Tymoshenko in prison. I fully support that call.

At the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on 14 May, it was agreed that further progress on the European Union's Association Agreement with Ukraine would require a number of positive steps on the resolution of the issue of politically motivated trials, including the detention of Ms. Yulia Tymoshenko, a former Prime Minister of Ukraine, and the free and fair conduct of the parliamentary elections which are due to take place in October 2012.