You're reading: EU Parliament to vote for visa-free regime suspension mechanism on December 15

The European Parliament will consider the bill A8-0235/2016 on Dec. 15 which provides for the suspension of the visa-free regime for third countries.

The debate on the agreement on the suspension mechanism for the visa-free regime for Georgia and Ukraine will be held on Dec. 14, and the matter will be put to the vote on Dec. 15, according to a report on the European Parliament website.

As reported, on Dec. 8, the Committee of Permanent Representatives to the EU (Coreper) approved on behalf of the EU Council the text of the agreement, as agreed with the European Parliament, on the suspension mechanism for a visa-free regime.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin subsequently said all political obstacles to the introduction of the EU visa-free regime for citizens of Ukraine have been removed.

“This matter is currently absolutely outside the politics, it is a technical matter, a matter of organization of the voting,” Klimkin said.

“Will they have enough time next week – it’s just a matter of going through all the voting, and there are five of them, if I am not mistaken. If they don’t have enough time next week, then they will be sure to complete the procedure during the first [plenary week of the European Parliament] in January,” the minister said.