Ukraine has launched the second round of evaluation of the fulfillment of criteria of the second stage of the EU visa liberalization plan, press secretary of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine Mariana Betsa has said.
“In order to introduce visa-free regime for Ukrainian citizens travelling to the EU, Ukraine executes practical steps on fulfilling the action plan on liberation of the visa regime every day,” Betsa said in a report on the EU evaluation missions, which was published on the website of the Interior Ministry on Sept. 1.
Eight groups of EU experts will work in Ukraine to evaluate the implementation of the plan, Betsa said. The commission on border security started working in Ukraine on Aug. 31, 2015, the anti-corruption mission – on Sept. 1, the mission on documentation security – on Sept. 2, 2015.
Starting from Sept. 7, the mission on combating organized crime will start working in Ukraine, while three more groups, on human rights, human trafficking prevention and asylum, will start working between Sept. 21 – Sept. 25, and the mission to combat funds legalization will start working on Sept. 28.
EU experts will meet with officials of central executive agencies and representatives of civil society. The experts will have the opportunity to fully evaluate the readiness of Ukraine to implement visa free regime for Ukrainian citizens.
The missions will then draw up reports, taking into the consideration the report of Ukraine on the fulfillment of the corresponding recommendations, given to the EU on Aug. 17, 2015, and subsequently, the EU commission will prepare a report on fulfilment of the second stage of the action plan on visa liberalization.
“We highly expect this report to have positive recommendation for Ukraine and Ukrainians, and the visa free regime with the EU will be possible next year,” Betsa said.
