You're reading: Ukraine, Europe switching to new stage in talks on visa-free regime

Ukraine and the European Union are switching to a new stage in talks on the introduction of visa-free travel for Ukrainian citizens, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy has said.

"We recognized that good progress [in a dialog on visa-free travel] had been made, and now we’ll proceed to drafting a two-stage action plan," he said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in Kyiv on Friday.

He said that Ukraine would have to implement this comprehensive action plan in order to establish a visa-free regime with EU member countries.

Herman Van Rompuy also said that progress had been made in talks on signing the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.

"We are confident that the conclusion of the association agreement will bring the economic and political benefit to Ukrainian citizens," he said.

However, he declined to say when the visa-free regime could be granted to Ukraine. In his words, "the result of a dialog is more important than a date."