The Ukrainian government has completed almost all of the tasks on the agenda of the first stage of the EU-Ukraine Visa Liberalization Action Plan (VLAP), Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has said.
“The government has fulfilled almost all of the tasks of the first stage of the action plan,” he said at a meeting with EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule in Kyiv on Thursday.
The premier said five bills have been submitted to the parliament, and their adoption is important for visa liberalization.
Azarov also said that next week the Cabinet of Ministers would submit to the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, two more bills on the improvement of the personal data protection system and on the prevention and counteraction of discrimination.
“We hope that not only the parliamentary majority but the opposition will also prove its commitment to European integration by passing these bills,” Azarov said.
Earlier, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine Fule expressed regret that the Ukrainian authorities have failed to pass the necessary legislation to switch to the second stage of VLAP.
“Now it is a pity that we are still short of a couple of legislative acts for finalizing the first stage of this visa liberalization action plan. I hope very much that the preparation for the summit, the summit itself will be used by the Ukrainian authorities to create momentum in this area,” he said in an interview before the trip to Ukraine.
The European commissioner added that the action plan contains “a specific list that clearly defines what kind of legislation, what kind of steps need to be taken for the [EU] member states to be able to provide Ukraine a visa free regime for the Schengen countries.”
He said the action plan has two stages: the first one involves Ukraine’s work to pass a list of specific legislative acts, and the second stage involves their implementation.
