Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. Fifth progress report on the implementation by Ukraine of the action plan on visa liberalisation

The European Union launched a visa liberalisation dialogue with Ukraine in 2010. On 22 November 2010, the European Commission presented the Ukrainian Government with an action plan on visa liberalisation (VLAP). This set out the benchmarks that Ukraine has to meet before Ukrainian nationals holding biometric passports can enter the Schengen zone for short stays without the need for a visa.

Following the Commission’s fourth report (27 May 2014) and its Council endorsement (23 June 2014), Ukraine is officially in the second phase of the action plan when the state of implementation of the legislative and policy framework is to be assessed. In line with the methodology outlined in the VLAP, the Commission organised on-site evaluations involving experts from Member States.

From September 2014 to March 2015, the Commission led evaluation missions on all four blocks of the VLAP, with the assistance of experts from Member States, the European External Action Service and the EU Delegation to Ukraine.

This is the first progress report on the implementation of the second phase of the VLAP by Ukraine. It addresses how effectively and sustainably the implementation of the first phase benchmarks has been addressed by the Ukrainian government.

The report is accompanied by a Commission Staff Working Document, which elaborates on the developments described in the report. In annex of the Staff Working Document, as required by the VLAP methodology, the Commission provides factual analysis and statistics based information regarding the expected migratory and security impacts of the future visa liberalisation. The data and information available give prospective main trends in migration and security areas, showing that EU is an attractive destination for migrants from Ukraine and that there are security challenges to be monitored.

EUR-Lex: COM(2015)200: Follow the progress of this report through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2015:200:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2015)104: Commission Staff Working Document accompanying the report http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2015:104:FIN

ESO: Background information: Commission assesses the implementation of Visa Liberalisation Action Plans by Ukraine and Georgia http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-commission-assesses-the-implementation-of-visa-liberalisation-action-plans-by-ukraine-and-georgia/

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