Tuesday, October 11, 2016

No visa waver for Ukrainians on European Parliament's October agenda



European Union visa-free travel for Ukraine has not been incorporated into the agenda of the European Parliament's session in Strasbourg on October 24-27.

Neither visa liberalization for Ukraine or Georgia nor visa waiver suspension mechanism has been incorporated on the EP agenda, which was posted on its official website. The mechanism is said to be a major obstacle to EU visa liberalization with Ukraine and Georgia.



As UNIAN reported earlier, the European Commission on April 20 proposed the European Parliament and the Council of Europe to abolish visas for Ukrainian citizens. This proposal was the result of a positive assessment by the European Commission given last December confirming the fact that Ukraine had successfully fulfilled all criteria under the Visa Liberalization Action Plan. On May 20, the EU ministers of interior affairs agreed their position regarding the so-called visa waiver suspension mechanism for third countries. 


Germany's Federal Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maiziere announced then that "no new decision on visa liberalization" would be taken before the approval of the mechanism. The European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) on September 26 approved a report on visa-free travel for Ukraine and provided a mandate for the launch of talks between the EU's institutions. 

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has recently said that he expects that the European Union will pass a positive decision regarding the introduction of a visa-free regime with Ukraine in October-November. 



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