A final decision on the approval of the amended visa facilitation agreement between Ukraine and the EU will be taken in the first half of May 2013 at a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara has said.
“The procedure [for the entry into force of the documents] in the European Union is a little more complicated than in Ukraine. After the agreement is ratified by the European Parliament, it will have to be approved by the Foreign Affairs Council and then it [the agreement] comes into force,” he told journalists in Kyiv on Thursday.
He said that the Ukrainian side was pleased to learn of the European Parliament’s decision.
Kozhara noted that this agreement replaces the previous document and significantly expands the list of persons who will be granted visas to the EU under the simplified procedure.
“This is a step forward,” he said, noting that Ukraine granted the visa-free regime for citizens of the European Union states in 2005.
“We believe that the current agreement is another step towards the cancellation of the visa regime with the EU,” he said.
While commenting on a statement posted on the European Parliament’s Web site that the visa facilitation procedure will apply to holders of biometric service passports, Kozhara said that Ukraine had approved legislation on the introduction of such documents.
“This largely concerns the internal procedures of the European Union, but it’s clear that the use by Ukrainian citizens of passports with biometric data corresponds to the rules that are applied in the countries of the Schengen zone,” he said.
He added that the issue concerns a simplified procedure for passing through all the formalities that are now envisaged on the borders of the Schengen zone.
As reported, on April 18, the European Parliament gave the green light to the entry into force of an agreement on amendments to the visa facilitation agreement between Ukraine and the EU.
A simple majority of MEPs voted for this decision in Strasbourg on Thursday.
According to the document, the simplified procedure for issuing visas applies to drivers engaged in international cargo and passenger transportation, journalists and technical staff accompanying them, participants of official exchange programs organized by the local authorities, close relatives, spouses, children, parents, grandparents, grandchildren that are visiting Ukrainian citizens living in the EU member states, or EU citizens, as well as citizens that travel to the EU for medical treatment.
A simplified procedure is also introduced for members of public organizations participating in seminars and conferences, participants of international exhibitions, conference, and symposiums, members of religious communities, and participants of official EU programs for cross-border cooperation.
The document stipulates that diplomatic missions and consulates of the EU issue five-year multiple entry to the following categories of people: members of central and local government, the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court, prosecutors and their deputies, permanent members of official delegations, one of the spouses and children aged under 21 of those who have a valid residence permit in one of the member states, or EU citizens, and businessmen and representatives of business entities who regularly visit EU member states.
European diplomatic missions and consulates also issue one-year multiple entry visas to such categories of people: drivers engaged in international transportation, crewmembers of international trains, refrigerator trains and locomotives, people engaged in scientific, cultural and artistic activities, participants in international sports events and accompanying persons, participants in official exchange programs organized by municipalities, representatives of non-governmental organizations who regularly travel to EU member states, and participants of the EU official programs on border cooperation.
Such visas are issued to these categories of people provided that during the previous year they obtained at least one Schengen visa and used it in line with the laws on entry and staying in the EU.
The agreement introducing amendments to the visa facilitation agreement between Ukraine and the EU was ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on March 22, and signed by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on April 8.
