On May 28, Ukraine moved one step closer to securing visa-free travel to the European Union.
That’s when the European Commission said Ukraine met so-called first phase requirements in passing a number of laws needed to move the process forward.Afterward, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso stated that Ukraine is now moving into the second phase where its capability of implementing a number of visa-related policy measures will be examined.
Adding to the news, EU Ambassador to Ukraine Jan Tombinski said on May 26 that Ukraine is “months away” from being able to travel freely to the 26 nations that make up the Schengen Zone within the EU by year-end.
The achievement means that Ukraine passed legislation in different fields, including anti-corruption, document security, data protection, asylum, anti-discrimination, as well as other measures.
Even though Ukraine was the first Eastern Partnership country to start visa dialogue with the EU, it still needs to catch up with and follow the success of Moldova whose citizens no longer require visas to travel to the EU.
It took four years for the Moldovan government to complete EU requirements.Experts noted that Ukraine has much to do to meet additional requirements.
Jakub Benedyczak, the coordinator of Friendly EU Border project, launched by Warsaw-based Stefan Batory Foundation, said the EU is satisfied with Ukrainian government efforts to bring the country closer to a visa-free regime with EU.
“The fact that Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada adopted a number of anti-discrimination laws is a good signal for the country and for the EU,” Benedyczak said during debates organized by Kyiv-based Europe without Barriers civic initiative that brings together Ukrainian and European experts, and Ukrainian government officials.
After completing the second stage, Ukrainians will no longer need visas to travel to the Schengen Zone for up to 90 days.
Yuriy Pichugin, a partner with Goldblum and Partners law firm, says the government needs to also cooperate with the European Commission on securing a simplified procedure for obtaining multiple-entry visas and long-term visas for such categories as students, scientists and “so-called business visas.
”However, the process may take time. To travel to the EU without visas, Ukrainians will be required to have biometric passports.
Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers promised to start issuing biometric passports to Ukrainian citizens in January 2015.
But Oleksandr Sushko, an analyst for the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, a Kyiv-based think tank, remains less optimistic on whether Ukraine meet this date.Suchko predicts “it may take up to five years to issue biometric passports,” adding that the demand will remain high even when visa-free travel comes into effect.
Serhiy Dehtyarenko, who heads the case management department at the country’s State Migration Service, said they will open offices in every Ukrainian region to publicize the information needed to get biometric travel documents.
“Then we hope to issue up to 150,000 passports every month,” Dehtyarenko said during a news conference in Kyiv.For Ukraine, home to 46 million citizens, this means that those who don’t get their new electronic passports by the time the EU approves visa-free travel with Ukraine, they will face the usual application process in long lines at EU embassies.
Vladyslav Podolyak, a lawyer with Vasyl Kysil & Partners, explains that “the country can consider only gradual production and issuance of biometric passports relevant to International Civil Aviation Organization standards.”
They define biometric file formats and communication protocols to be used in passports, including the consulates of Ukraine abroad, and the gradual withdrawal of passports that do not comply with the standards, he explains.He also stressed the government needs to focus on two key tasks.
“Primarily, the country need to establish a quick process of issuing new passports in accordance with the number of those potentially willing to have one, while the other thing is to remove artificial barriers or combat the fact that immigration officers work too slow, thereby preventing corruption schemes of the so-called ‘expeditors,’” he explained.
While open borders with the EU may encourage a number of labor migrants to leave the country, Ukraine also needs to make improvements in document security, migration management and asylum policy.
That’s why data protection looks like another sensitive issue. Marta Tsvengrosh, a junior lawyer for Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners, voiced concern over the government’s idea to create a central database containing personal data of individuals.
“Such a database raises a number of privacy concerns, including risks of data leakage and usage of data for other purposes than it was originally intended, “ Tsvengrosh said. She added that in a number of European countries, such as France, Germany or Netherlands, biometric data is stored only on a card retained by the individual rather than recorded in a central database.
To reduce the risks of data protection violations, instead of a central nationwide database, a local database could be created. “As an alternative, specific databases linked to certain authorities – the State Migration Service or State Automobile Inspection – could be used,” Tsvengrosh explains.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected]
