President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has stated his intention to hold another meeting with Verkhovna Rada parliamentarians to persuade them to vote for the draft bills required to secure visa free travel with the European Union.
“Yesterday was next to the last day, the last one will be on Tuesday. I’ll have one more meeting with them, the parliamentarians. I’ll do everything for the state to receive the opportunity of visa free travel,” Poroshenko said on Nov. 6 while delivering a speech to the students and staff of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
According to him, the EU has already taken a political decision to grant a visa free regime to Ukraine, but Ukraine needs to fulfill its obligations for the policy to come into effect.
“It is not the EU, but Ukraine that needs this, and another important thing is for you not to think that the EU is finding new requirements for Ukraine: I want to stress that every country which has aspired for visa free travel overcame all the requirements,” Poroshenko said.
According to him, the unresolved requirements include protection for minorities, and measures to combat corruption and strengthen democracy.
“I’m absolutely sure that the 40 to 50 parliamentarians who didn’t vote in support of these laws do not have the right to deprive 45 million [Ukrainian] citizens of visa free trips to the Schengen states,” Poroshenko said.
As a result, Poroshenko said that it is “necessary to put pressure [on MPs] to make it impossible for the Verkhovna Rada to fail to pass several bills which are left.”
