Sometime in the future, Ukrainians might be able to travel to European Union countries without a visa, the BBC quotes the European Commissioner for EU Enlargement, Guenter Verheugen, as saying. “I do not rule out that in the short or long term citizens of the neighboring countries will travel freely within the EU. But this will depend entirely on whether the proper requirements are met,” Mr. Verheugen announced. Admittedly, this statement kindled no great enthusiasm at Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On the other hand, Ukrainian diplomats have noted that Verheugen said he would like to visit Ukraine. Still, it is too early to make any conclusions about attitudinal changes.
Those who travel abroad must have more than once followed the repulsive procedure of submitting various documents and lining up for a visa at a consulate. The Schengen area, which embraces eleven of the current fifteen EU member states, is notorious for the strictest entry rules ever. Moreover, the complaints of Ukrainian citizens about the “hospitality” of European consular employees have never caused Brussels diplomats to raise an eyebrow. Liberalization and gradual abolition of visa requirements, including the inherent excessive restrictions, has never been on the agenda of specific negotiations between Ukraine and the EU.
The first breakthrough in this field was the European Commission’s communication (program document) made public in early March this year: Wider Europe — Neighborhood: a New Framework for Relations with Our Eastern and Southern Neighbors. The document, open for broad public debate, contained many elements of cooperation, which allowed one to presume that the EU was offering its “new neighbors” — Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova — almost everything but membership. The communication also dealt with implementing the comprehensive EU principle of the four freedoms: free movement of people, goods, capitals, and services. This item might have meant the EU declining to impose visa barriers. However, almost half of the current EU states strongly oppose any talk of completely removing barriers.
It is perhaps for this reason that Mr. Verheugen’s statement is full of doubt: “It is difficult to say whether it is possible to do so with a certain country in the immediate future. We have already suggested entering into negotiations on this subject with Russia. But this does not yet mean we will manage to carry it out.” Incidentally, the Russian president has repeatedly urged the EU to cancel visa requirements for his compatriots. While in the case of Russia the EU shows readiness to discuss this matter, and Vladimir Putin and European Commission President Romano Prodi have even made a statement to this effect, Kyiv still remains on the fringe of EU interests and any similar dialog is problematic. Ukraine has been blacklisted as a state with borders much too open to contraband and illegal migration. The EU has only agreed to hold talks on strengthening the Ukrainian border and drawing up an agreement on readmission (repatriating illegal migrants at the expense of the parent country). A few things have to be pointed out here. It is Ukraine that initiated negotiating a readmission agreement with the EU. Kyiv thus hoped to gain certain dividends from Brussels, particularly, visa-free entry into the EU for bearers of Ukrainian diplomatic passports and gradual liberalization of visa requirements for Ukrainian citizens. There has been no progress thus far.
Russia refuses on principle to negotiate a readmission agreement with Ukraine, although most of the illegal migrants come to Ukraine from the Russian territory on their way to the West. This creates quite a strange situation: as to a visa-free treatment, they talk with Moscow about a regime without visas but to Kyiv about commitments (including readmission). After the second round of talks held June 19-20 in Brussels between Ukraine and the EU about drawing up and signing a readmission agreement, Ukrainian diplomats dared at last to put forward a condition of their own. They officially emphasized that signing this document is an integrated issue that concerns not only Ukraine and the EU but also Russia and Belarus. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry State Secretary Oleksandr Chaly has more than once said that Ukraine has suggested introducing the so-called common readmission space. This idea, if put into practice, could perhaps encourage border guards to be more vigilant on duty. On the other hand, the issue of illegal migration control (high on the list of EU priorities) looks somewhat at variance with the real situation: it is not the Ukrainians, Russians or Belarusians who form the majority of those who penetrate into the West.
Simultaneously, the Russians claim that the EU embassies further tightened visa issue procedures after Messrs. Putin and Prodi had announced the beginning of a dialog on visa-free treatment. Diplomats also note that, in the case of Russia, the EU not only shows double standards but also declares an intention to discuss the problem without guaranteeing that it will be solved.
Ukrainian diplomatic circles believe that Commissioner Verheugen’s statement smacks of two-year-old rhetoric. Moreover, the EU makes all its decisions by consensus, but no consensus can be reached before the ten candidate counties become new EU members in May 2004, before the European Constitution is adopted, and a new European Parliament is elected. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry is also unhappy, to put it mildly, that the debate on Greater Europe — Neighborhood... somehow failed to touch on several very positive points that concern not only a free cross-border movement. For example, the new concept of EU Eastern policy no longer mentions involvement of the European Investment Bank in Ukrainian projects, nor does it plan to update the existing instruments of technical assistance or allow access to EU domestic markets. Thus, Kyiv says, the document that originally inspired cautious optimism has in fact been emasculated.
Incidentally, Commissioner Verheugen does not think that Poland’s entry into the EU in May next and the imposition of visas on Ukrainian citizens by Warsaw in October will alienate Ukrainians. He noted that “this new border should not affect economic exchanges and human relationships. The EU is prepared, together with Poland, to consider drawing up and funding a cross-border movement program.” It is not clear how one can avoid feeling alienated when visa requirements are still in force.
