European Commission approves second phase of Visa Liberalization Process to Ukraine

The European Commission has concluded that Ukraine successfully met all the first phase requirements of the visa dialogue and can therefore move to second phase of visa liberalization process.

The Commission adopted its fourth progress report on the Ukraine implementation of Visa Liberalization Action Plan (VLAP) according to which Ukraine meets the first-phase requirements including institutional framework, policy and necessary legislative. Thus, the second stage can be launched where the implementation of these rules will be examined.

Barroso, President of European Commission, said that the plan to move to second phase of the VLAP is the first appreciation of the legislative reforms taken up in the recent months.

To deal with the identified gaps, Ukraine has taken up laws in different fields including anti-corruption, document security, data protection, asylum, anti-discrimination and other measures.

The Commission has analyzed the reforms, which include last amendment-package taken up by the parliament of Ukrainian and analysis of Ukraine’s Supreme Specialised Court, and stated that Ukraine meets the benchmarks of first-phase in all the areas addressed by the VLAP leading to the approval for launch of second phase.

The Commission is expected to provide support in the implementation of institutional framework, legislative and policy while Ukrainian authorities are anticipated to provide all the necessary resources required for proper implementation of all the rules including discrimination.