Deutsche Welle: EU agrees visa-free access for Ukrainian and Georgian citizens

Published Dec. 8, 2016. Updated Dec. 8 at 7:26 pm

Young Ukrainians with their faces painted with the European Union and Ukrainian flags march from Taras Shevchenko Park to European Square in Kyiv on Nov. 24, 2013. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians turned out for the rally on the square to urge the then-President Viktor Yanukovych to reverse his government’s decision to suspend work on signing Ukraine’s political and economic Association Agreement with the European Union.

Photo by Kostyantyn Chernichkin

Citizens from the former Soviet states will soon be able to travel to the EU without a visa. However, countries such as Germany have insisted on strengthening emergency measures to pause access, if required.

EU diplomats and lawmakers on Dec. 8 ended an internal dispute which had been holding up a plan to grant Ukrainians and Georgians visa-free travel to the bloc. The deal marks an end to the mounting embarrassment facing EU leaders who felt the bloc was reneging on promises it made to the former Soviet states.