Visa-free regime for Ukraine with the EU: conditions. What will give Ukraine a visa-free regime with the EU?

February 18, 2016 was a significant day, bringing the visa-free regime for Ukraine and the EU closer. What happened in parliament can only be compared with the day when the European Commission gave a positive assessment of the country's readiness for innovation.

Have accepted, yes not that

Parallels are obvious. Now, on December 18, 2015, Ukraine won. Although a bit unexpectedly - the day before the probability of an unfavorable outcome was very high. And again, before the abolition of the visa regime, only "a few steps" remain. Again, the desire of politicians to hide their own incomes is able to disrupt the visa-free regime for Ukraine and to delay the receipt of it € 600 million.

The situation can still be saved. The EU is ready to make concessions on certain issues, and Kiev is able to prove its position. But, nevertheless, changes in the law on declarations are necessary. Deputies should correct the most blatant mistakes, as they did before.

The force of habit

It's hard to understand why the Rada is constantly trying to deceive the EU by embarrassing herself, and then goes back on track. Habit? But today it is already possible to sum up the preliminary results: when visa-free regime for Ukraine with the EU becomes possible and what needs to be done to make it happen.

On Thursday, February 18, the Verkhovna Rada decided to amend several documents. First of all, we are talking about the law on the National Agency for the return and management of illegally withdrawn assets, on special confiscation and seizure of property and on the prosecutor's office.

These three documents are included in the list of draft anti-corruption laws, the adoption of which the European Union insistently demands: three definitive statements were made to them within three days about the official amendments.

The Prosecutor General's Office is the enemy of the European integration?

Nevertheless, the vote for anti-corruption laws until the last moment was questionable. On Wednesday, February 17, the Verkhovna Rada's specialized committee approved the editorial boards of the laws lobbying the interests of the General Prosecutor's Office. The committee and its head Kozhemyakin defended the staffing of the state of the anti-corruption prosecutor's office only by employees of the old department, who worked at least 5 years in the system. Thus, access to anti-corruption lawyers, independent lawyers, activists was closed to her. The idea of strengthening the prosecutor's office was in line with the president's proposals put forward in the bill, which gives the Prosecutor General the right to impose a veto on the appointment of a competitor who has passed the competition and the SBU specialist.

Virtuosos of sabotage

The EU statement that the strengthening of the role of the Prosecutor General's Office is unacceptable, went unnoticed. The same happened with the law on special confiscation and asset seizure. Although the draft law met all the requirements of the European Union, some deputies, including people's representatives from the presidential bloc, did not fully agree with him. A whole campaign was launched to disrupt its adoption, headed by deputies from the Batkivshchyna Party, Yulia Tymoshenko's supporters : Andrei Kozhemyakin and Sergei Vlasenko. And also a member of the Petro Poroshenko bloc, Nikolai Palamarchuk, and a member of Self-help, Elena Sotnik.

Amendments of the representatives of the "pro-European" parliamentary factions actually nullified the law, despite the EU's direct statement that any change in the document could disrupt the visa-free regime for Ukraine. As a result, the committee approved the amendments, from the point of view of the EU, unacceptable.

Winning Common Sense

But last night something happened. Most likely, Brussels or Washington was involved in a certain instrument of influence, addressed to the President of Ukraine. The head of state, in turn, communicates the signal to his comrades-in-arms and further to the final performers.

And the result did not take long. At a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada, Yuriy Lutsenko, head of the presidential faction, suddenly declined the revisions that aroused the indignation of the European Union, and asked to adopt norms that he himself rejected. The same was repeated for other European integration laws. Deputies of the Ukrainian parliament supported the EU option, and the amendments to Vlasenko, Kozhemyakina, Sotnik and Palamarchuk were not approved.

Problems

However, there remained two important problems, which Ambassador Ian Tombinsky recalled in a widely circulated letter. For a visa-free regime, it is necessary to amend the law on electronic declarations, and by the end of March the National Anti-Corruption Agency should start working.

The latter requirement is easily achievable, but only if the government stops pushing its candidates. With electronic declaration, the situation is more complicated, since the amendments must be coordinated with the European Union. Acceptance of amendments occurred with a voice, in two readings simultaneously. The law has not been published so far - it is being finalized by the committee. The amendments radically changed the system of fighting corruption.

The ends in the water

For example, the requirement to declare income began to extend not to all relatives, but only to relatives living with a deputy, civil servant or an official of the local government. It is not necessary now to declare the expenses for real estate, in which the deputy lives, but is not registered. The minimum amount to be declared increased to 200 thousand hryvnia from 70. Criminal prosecution for incorrect declaration was postponed to 2017. Denisenko with other deputies who supported the project, lied about agreeing their proposal with the European Union.

The indignation of experts and Europeans was predictable, but ... It seems that Kiev is able to convince the European Union of the need for some innovations, agreeing to reconsider the already adopted amendments.

Statement by the EU Ambassador

The ambassador of the European Union in Ukraine said that the bill on electronic declaration must comply with international standards, the leadership of the anti-corruption agency should be appointed, and the National Agency itself must begin work in the I quarter. 2016

EU leaders have a great desire to grant a visa-free regime for Ukraine, so the limit of compromise is constantly pushed back. The option with ignoring the EU requirements is not considered. From the introduction of electronic declaration in 2016, the EU's financing for the amount of 600 million euros depends, as well as the IMF's assistance for billions of US dollars. A compromise must be reached.

When can I expect the cancellation of visas?

The date of abolition in the Foreign Ministry is not called, but they admit that there is still a struggle for a package consideration of this issue together with Georgia. In 2013, it was planned to cancel the visa regime for Kiev and Chisinau, but then the countries were divided because Ukraine was dragging out the adoption of the necessary laws. As a result, Moldovans from 2014 do not need European visas. But after an unexpected breakthrough, the chances of Ukraine increased.

The European Commission from day to day can submit to the Council of the European Union a proposal that will enable the EU to adopt a visa-free regime for Ukraine and Georgia in April. For this to happen, it is necessary to take an appropriate decision at a meeting of the Council on March 10-11. However, one can not hope for this. Europe is already accustomed to Ukraine's failure to fulfill its obligations and will wait for the Verkhovna Rada to adopt agreed amendments to the law on electronic declaring. And the anti-corruption agency will not have time to start work before March 10.

The real prospect will be the adoption of a decision at a meeting of the Council of the European Union, which will be held on 9-10 June 2016. This allows us to count on the beginning of the visa-free regime at the end of July. There is also a less likely outcome - the adoption of a decision at the "non-core" meeting of the Council of the European Union. The visa-free regime will be introduced one month earlier, at the beginning of summer. But for this, sincere steps should be taken by Ukraine to combat corruption.

Ukraine + visa-free regime: list of countries

Suppose that the long-awaited goal is finally achieved. In this case, another question arises: what will Ukraine get visa-free with the EU? The answer is obvious: citizens of Ukraine with biometric passports will have the opportunity to travel without visas to many European countries. The countries of visa-free regime for Ukraine include

• 22 Schengen countries: France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Slovakia, Poland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Malta;
• EU countries that do not participate in the Schengen agreement: Cyprus, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania;
• Associated with Schengen countries: Iceland, Switzerland, Norway and Liechtenstein.

The only exception is the UK: a visa for travel to this country will be mandatory.

Visa-free regime for Ukrainian citizens will become real only if there is a biometric passport, and for owners of old documents everything will remain the same. The period of stay in the European Union will not exceed 90 days within six months.

In Moldova, the border was first asked to provide supporting documents, but now they only require a passport. People who have not violated anything do not experience problems on border control. Sometimes the purpose of the trip is asked.

Biometric passport

It is an obligatory document. Its design will cost up to 1 thousand UAH. Documents that are now needed by the embassy for issuing a visa can be requested at the customs: an invitation, a hotel reservation, medical insurance, a ticket back plus 45 euros per day for the entire duration of the trip. Cash can replace an extract from a bank account, traveler's checks or an invitation-guarantee. And if the required documents can be brought to the embassy, then, being abroad, it will be much more difficult to do this.

The visa-free regime for Ukraine does not allow the holder of a biometric passport to live, study or work in the European Union. To do this, you must apply for a residence permit, student or work visa, as before, and with the same set of documents.

Refusal of entry

Personal tourist information will be checked in the database of the Schengen area. If a person has violated the rules of stay before and the law, for example, has expired the visa, it can not be missed. In addition, the traveler can not be allowed even in the absence of supporting documents. In this case, an official denial of entry will be issued, which can be appealed in court. The form contains information on how and where it can be done.

Thus, the expansion of the list of countries that can be traveled without a visa is not the only thing that will give a visa-free regime to Ukraine. On the way to it, Ukrainian legislation began to be brought to European standards. In total, more than a dozen laws were adopted, an anti-corruption bureau and an investigation bureau were launched. One more step towards membership in the European Union - that's what the visa-free regime for Ukraine means.