EP rapporteur supported visa cancellation for Ukrainians, but the voting will be held in late September or October.

European Parliament rapporteur Maria Gabriel recommended EP to cancel visa regime for Ukraine and encouraged committee members to support her draft report, Deutsche Welle reports.

Thus, today in Brussels the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs considers the issue of introduction of visa-free regime with Georgia, Kosovo and Ukraine.

But if the relevant reports on Georgia and Kosovo are submitted to voting by committee members today, then the report of Bulgarian Deputy Maria Gabriel with the proposal to include Ukraine to the list of countries, with which EU introduces visa-free regime, will be only debriefed.

As reported in the EP Committee Secretariat, “the voting for the report on Ukraine will be held in late September or in mid-October”.

According to the document, starting from 2014 Ukraine has made “significant and rapid progress” in implementation of action plan on liberalization of the visa regime with EU “in spite of internal and external challenges the country faced”.

Gabriel notes that during the preparation of the report her cooperation with Ukrainian authorities and civil community was “extremely positive”. In the rapporteur’s opinion, the visa cancellation for those Ukrainians, who have biometric passports, will become the concrete achievement and result of “commitment of Ukrainian citizens to peace, stability and European way of reforms of their country”.

In her report the European deputy assures her colleagues that the cancellation of short-term visas for Ukrainians “will help to create new economic opportunities”, which is the extremely important in the context of deep and comprehensive free trade area, which is operating between Ukraine and EU.

Except for legal and economic arguments in favor of “visa-free regime” with Ukraine, Gabriel also uses political motivation. In her opinion, today “Ukraine received the opportunity to develop real democracy and ensure the supremacy of law”, and EU “supports Ukraine in this process, which requires constant and continuous efforts”.

The rapporteur also dwelled upon the aspects of migration risks and security of visa-free regime. She noted that currently visa denials to the citizens of Ukraine in the consulates of EU countries make up less than two percent. Meanwhile, the readmission agreement, signed between Kyiv and Brussels in November 2007, secures the European Union against the influx of illegal migrants from third countries through Ukraine.

However, the rapporteur encourages Ukraine to continue the process of addition of border points to Interpol database, issuance of biometric passports and running information campaign on the rights and obligations, associated with visa-free trips of Ukrainian citizens to the EU.

Source: Correspondent.