Op de agenda staat onder meer de nakoming van het Minsk-2 akkoord van februari 2015, de voortgang bij de hervormingen en de corruptiebestrijding en de afschaffing van de visumplicht. Wat het laatste punt betreft worden vandaag naar verwachting geen knopen doorgehakt. Het schrappen van het verplichte visum is op de lange baan geschoven, omdat er volgens de EU eerst afspraken nodig om een grote toestroom van Oekraïners naar Europa te voorkomen.
Bron: Ukrinform
Ukraine-EU summit:
expecting no miracle
Despite all calls of Ukraine authorities, the country is unlikely to get
a long-awaited visa liberalization with the EU at the Ukraine-EU summit
on November 24. The visa-free saga will continue at least until spring.
Автор:
Kostyantyn Honcharov
Politics
19:01, 23 November 2016
246
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Ukraine-EU summit: expecting no miracle
Photo from UNIAN
Despite the pleas of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry not to delay the
process and not to link the provision of a visa-free regime with the
agreement on a visa waiver suspension mechanism, the EU Council on
November 17 did quite the opposite. As a result, a visa-free regime
between the EU and Ukraine will put in place along with the adoption of
the EU decision on the mechanism of response to migration risks.
In other words, the decision to grant the EU visa-free regime for
Ukraine is out there. However, due to bureaucratic procedures, its entry
into force is delayed for an indefinite period. According to The
Financial Times’s source, the approval of the suspension mechanism and,
therefore, the provision of a visa-free regime for Ukraine may take
several weeks. According to other sources, it can take months.
Hostages of bureaucracy
From the political perspective the EU-Ukraine summit will have a
significant and positive outcome because it is indeed an important
political event in bilateral relations between the EU and Ukraine,
ex-Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko says. "We must proceed from the
fact that the summit will confirm the immutability of the position of
the European Union with regard to Ukraine and its help in countering the
aggressive Russia," says the diplomat.
The ex-minister believes that the summit will also evidence that the
rapprochement between Ukraine and the EU remains on top agenda and that
the expression of this rapprochement will be granting a visa-free regime
for Ukraine.
However, he criticizes current decision on binding visa liberalization
for Ukraine to the mechanism of its suspension: "I think that our
European partners don’t act adequately in this case. In my opinion, they
should first provide a visa-free regime, which Ukraine is supposed to
get, as all the necessary requirements have been met, while their
internal procedures should be carried out according to a separate scheme
and plan. And after they are agreed, they should inform Ukraine and
other countries on their completion."
REUTERS
REUTERS
In the current situation, in his opinion, Ukraine remains hostage to the
internal document approval process in the EU. "To some extent, we
remain hostage to their internal process of harmonization of the
internal documents, which have no direct and immediate relationship to
us. The very fact does not look as an adequate move," says Ohryzko.
The ball is on the EU’s pitch
"The question of a visa waiver suspension is not directly connected with
Ukraine. This is the EU’s internal procedure. I want to believe that
this mechanism will be adopted in the near future, but the European
bureaucratic system is very complicated, so pessimists say we will get
visa liberalization somewhere in February or March next year, while the
optimists believe that it will happen this year," said Deputy Director
of the Situations Modeling Agency Oleksiy Holobutsky.
According to him, however deep the bureaucracy is, the end of an
infinite soap opera of a visa-free regime is not far off.
Political scientist, head of the Analytical Center Third Sector Andriy
Zolotaryov opines differently. He believes that Ukraine will hardly see
visa liberalization in the near future. "The summit will once again
coordinate positions, the parties will share opinions but we should not
expect any major decisions," says the expert.
This is mainly because Ukraine remains for Europe a source of enormous
migration risks
Checkpoints on the border with Poland / Photo from UNIAN
A checkpoint on the border with Poland / Photo from UNIAN
At the same time, according to Holobutsky, if a miracle happens in the
foreseeable future, the provision of a visa-free regime will be
completed only in order not to lose face, because this is a
long-promised move. Also, this can be done to support the president of
Ukraine politically. "The visa question is one of the basic ones in the
European integration policy of the Ukrainian authorities, which is a
pillar of their legitimacy, and I think that European officials are well
aware of the consequences in case they deprive the Ukrainian
authorities of this backup," he says.
Anyway, diplomatic sources and part of the experts interviewed by UNIAN
agree that some European countries are really looking for an excuse to
delay the provision of a visa free regime for Ukrainians. "They are very
sensitive to criticism of the Ukrainian government by non-governmental
organizations. They use any critical remark as a pretext to postpone the
decision. To be honest, they are not interested in that decision [to
grant a visa-free regime]," the diplomats say.
In particular, it is France, Belgium, and Germany, which more than any
other EU member states are affected by the influx of migrants. However,
while the French are ready to delay the process up to their presidential
election in the spring of next year, the Germans are prepared to do so
up to their parliamentary elections in the autumn of 2017.
Wrong time, wrong place
Professor of political science at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy, the
scientific director of the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, Oleksiy
Haran, says that the actual decision to grant Ukraine a visa-free regime
has in fact been taken. And now it is important to speed up the
process. "The decision had been made. Of course, we cannot jump over the
EU's decision, but Ukraine has already done all it could do. Now it is
important for us to speed up the process of adoption of a visa waiver
suspension mechanism, not to let it be delayed," says Haran.
In global terms, this mechanism is not directly connected with the
Ukrainian issue. We are talking about the procedure for all the
countries with which the EU has and will have a visa-free regime. In
this regard, the analyst insists that we should not create a false
impression that Europe fears the invasion of migrants from Ukraine,
focusing only on this aspect.
On the other hand, according to Haran, part of the responsibility for
the current delay certainly lies with the Ukrainian government, which
did not bother to promptly carry out the necessary steps in the issue of
visa liberalization: "It’s bad luck for us because we got here in the
wrong time and the wrong place. The visa liberalization procedure for
Ukraine got superimposed on a migratory crisis, which is associated with
the events, primarily in Syria. And it proves once again that we should
not put off any decisions. We have many things being postponed... For
example, the Parliament thinks it may not pass some decision now,
delaying it for later. This is a wrong attitude. In this case, much of
the responsibility lies with the Parliament, which did not make the
necessary steps in a timely manner... You can never rely on the last
moment, on the idea that we can do something later."
REUTERS
REUTERS
On the eve of the summit, the Presidential Administration of Ukraine
claims that a visa-free regime with the European Union may be granted to
Ukraine as early as December. However, we should not expect that this
deadline is final. After all, we have already seen more than a dozen
different dates called since the beginning of this year.
Realizing skepticism over such promises, sources in diplomatic circles
assured UNIAN that they will try to speed up the adoption of the EU
decision to grant Ukraine a visa-free regime. To this end, they are
ready to use all resources available, including the allies from the
United States, because they understand that the bureaucratic process can
drag on indefinitely.
Background
On April 20 2016, the European Commission proposed to the European
Parliament and the EU Council to abolish visas for Ukrainian citizens.
This proposal is the result of a positive assessment provided by the
European Commission last December. Among other things, it confirms that
Ukraine has met all the criteria in the framework of the Visa
Liberalization Action Plan.
September 26 2016, the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties,
Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) backed a report on granting Ukraine a
visa-free regime and gave a mandate to start negotiations between the EU
institutions.
November 15 2016, EP President Martin Schulz said about the readiness of
the European Parliament to support the visa-free regime for Ukraine. He
expressed confidence that the visa liberalization will lead to an
increase in foreign investment and contribute to economic development of
Ukraine. At the same time, Schulz said that part of the work must be
done by Ukraine as well.
November 17 2016, the European Union at the level of the Committee of
Permanent Representatives of countries-members of the EU (COREPER)
approved the European Council's position on the inter-institutional
negotiations on a visa-free regime for Ukraine, while agreeing with the
proposal of the European Commission to provide such a regime.
At the same time, the EU Council stood for the idea that the entry into
force of the visa free regime for Ukraine should take place
simultaneously with the entry into force of the new temporary suspension
mechanism.
Photo from UNIAN
Photo from UNIAN
After the adoption by the European Parliament and the EU Council of the
proposal to liberalize the visa regime for Ukraine, the Ukrainian
citizens with biometric passports will no longer need visas for short
trips (up to ninety days) to the Schengen zone.
Visa-free travel will be provided to all EU Member States except Ireland
and the United Kingdom, as well as to four countries associated with
the Schengen - Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.
The exemption from visa requirements regards short-term visas valid for
trips for a period of 90 days within any 180-day period for commercial,
tourist or family purposes. Exemption from visa requirements does not
provide for the right to work in the EU.
At the same time, the remaining conditions of entry to the Schengen area
will be further applied, including the need to prove the proper
financial status and purpose of travel.
Read more on UNIAN: http://www.unian.info/politics/1640556-ukraine-eu-summit-expecting-no-miracle.html
Read more on UNIAN: http://www.unian.info/politics/1640556-ukraine-eu-summit-expecting-no-miracle.html
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