Jan Tombinski, the EU Ambassador to Ukraine, said that Ukraine would not get a visa-free regime at the Eastern Partnership summit in Riga in June 2015. “The decision will not be taken due to a lack of time to pass it,” said Tombinski as quoted by UNIAN. He also added that Europeans are now waiting for the European Commission’s conclusions on Ukraine’s progress.
We would like to remind our readers that in February President Poroshenko promised that Ukraine had fulfilled all the conditions of the EU visa regime liberalization plan and “is counting on support.” “Introducing a visa-free regime with Ukraine would become a good example for other Eastern Partnership member countries,” said Poroshenko back then.
Has Ukraine indeed coped with all the necessary tasks for obtaining a visa-free regime with the EU? What else needs to be done in this respect, and when can Ukrainians set out on a visa-free travel to Europe? The Day interviewed Iryna SUSHKO, leader of the NGO “Europe without Borders” and an expert on visa problems.
“Seen from the perspective of independent experts, the Visa Liberalization Action Plan (VLAP) is not yet completed. However, not only the Ukrainian government has to close these issues, but also the European Commission needs to evaluate that and send a message about the EU readiness to pass a relevant decision. The very algorithm of its adoption matters, as does the time for its realization. Due to this, it would be unrealistic to speak of obtaining the visa-free regime at the Riga summit. Besides biometric passports, there is also the question of personal data protection, countering corruption and discrimination, and of an operational protocol with Europol for ensuring a regular exchange of information on lost or stolen documents. In each block several smaller tasks could be named, which are not yet fully closed.
“If we have completed the remaining tasks by the summer, we will need to wait for some two months for the European Commission’s report. It would be logical to expect such a decision in the fall. But taking Moldova’s experience into consideration, the period from passing such a decision to introducing the visa-free regime took almost six months. It was a period of adaptation and switching over to new standards. That is why I think that Ukrainians will be able to travel to Europe without visas starting from the next year.”
