Ukraine Nears Visa Liberalisation With the EU

KYIV, Ukraine, February 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine released a statement that Ukraine was approaching the second implementation phase of the Action Plan on Visa Liberalisation. This followed the Second Progress Report of the implementation by Ukraine of the Action Plan on Visa Liberalisation, published by the European Commission on February 9, 2012.

The Ministry emphasized that the country closely followed the visa liberalisation plan schedule. By November of 2011 Ukraine worked on four blocks of issues, outlined in the Action Plan on Visa Liberalisation: document security, including biometrics; irregular immigration, including readmission; public order and security; and external relations and fundamental rights. In the nearest future the ministry plans to put together a plan of finalizing the first implementation phase of the Action Plan on Visa Liberalisation and move on to the second.

The officials in the foreign ministry reminded that Ukraine had already introduced state programs and regulations on countering corruption and organized crime in order to proceed to the second implementation phase of the Action Plan on Visa Liberalisation. At the moment, awaiting introduction are the acts ensuring human trafficking prevention, regulating the status of refugees and stateless persons, as well as the act on the use of biometric data.

On December 19, 2011, the Joint Statement made by the EU and Ukraine leaders following the 15^th EU-Ukraine summit in Kyiv welcomed the progress in implementing the Action Plan on Visa Liberalisation. The negotiations on simplification of the visa facilitation procedure had been successfully finalized, according to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

Ukraine was granted the Action Plan on Visa Liberalisation at the previous Ukraine-EU summit, held on November 22, 2010. The Action Plan provisioned two phases - namely, introducing a set of legislative acts and the following implementation of the new legal provisions. At the recent Eastern Partnership summit in Warsaw, the EU agreed to abolish its previous formula for liberalisation of the visa regime for Ukrainian citizens, which set visa liberalisation to be a long-term perspective. Ukraine seeks solid conditions stipulating cancellation of the visa regime with the EU.

The visa liberalisation dialogue was initialed in 2006. The Action Plan on Visa Liberalisation for Ukraine toward the establishment of a visa-free regime for short-stay travel was adopted in late 2010.