Member states set to simplify Ukraine visa requirements

Date: 06/10/05

EU member states are expected to agree later this month on a mandate to negotiate a simplified visa regime for Ukrainian citi-zens entering the Union. Ukrainian officials are pressing the EU to scrap visas for diplomats and reduce or abolish application fees for ordi-nary citizens.

Kiev is also asking the EU to scrap invitation requirements and to unify and simplify the visa pro-cedure across the Union.

But with some EU member states still concerned at the effects of lifting or easing visa requirements, negotiations are unlikely to be completed before a 1 December summit in Kiev. The EU has long insisted that any deal on visas be linked to an accord on re-admitting illegal migrants to Ukraine. The country has already scrapped visa requirements for EU and Swiss visitors.

The number of EU visitors travelling to Ukraine more than doubled in May and June this year compared with the same period last year, after the Ukraine government decided in March to scrap visas for EU citizens temporarily.

In July it extended visa-free travel indefinitely, in a bid to improve EU ties.

While the vast majority of visitors came from neighbouring Poland, visits from French, German, Austrian, Italian and Dutch citizens were up 25-30%. But the number of visitors still falls far behind those for Turkey, which in 2003 received 7.7 million visitors from EU member states.

Article reports that EU Member States were expected to agree, during October 2005, on a mandate to negotiate a simplified visa regime for Ukrainian citizens entering the Union. Ukrainian officials were pressing the EU to scrap visas for diplomats and reduce or abolish application fees for ordinary citizens.

• Primary Source

EEAS: Countries: Ukraine http://www.eeas.europa.eu/ukraine/index_en.htm

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