21 may 2010 13:15 EU promises not to torture Ukraine regarding visa-free requirements
Deputy Foreign Minister Kostiantyn Yeliseyev who participated in a meeting of the High Level Group in Brussels within the frames of a visa-free dialogue, said that Ukraine hopes to start implementation of the Action Plan for the introduction of the visa-free entry to the EU for Ukrainian citizens since this October. It will become possible following approval of this document at the Brussels Summit Ukraine-EU.

Yeliseyev said that this Action Plan or 'road map' on the visa-free regime will make clear the conditions that Ukraine should meet in order that the visa-free regime has become a reality. "That is, actually, at our level we made a decision that the Ukrainian party was waiting for and was striving to achieve. I very much hope that this decision will be supported during a meeting of Justice and Foreign Ministers in the Ukraine-EU Troyka format to be held in Luxembourg in early June," the Deputy Foreign Minister said, UKRINFORM reports.

Kostiantyn Yeliseyev separately noted that the parties agreed to name the next document as Action Plan taking into account changes in the EU legal terminology after the Lisbon Treaty came into force and the EU Visa Code was approved.

The diplomat stressed that the decision was made specifically and explicitly in relation only to Ukraine. There will be not a cluster approach, each country will be judged by specific accomplishments and merits. Therefore, "we should do a lot on this way," he said, recalling that the Philippines initiated the so-called 'visa-free dialogue' with the EU in October 2008 and carried out considerable work over this period.

One of the necessary preconditions for the introduction of the visa-free regime with the EU, according to Yeliseyev, will be introduction of biometric passports in Ukraine.

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