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We present a joint report on visa policy between the EU and Ukraine, which is the product of the Committee on Parliamentary Cooperation between Ukraine and EU. The work was led by co-chairs of the Committee Borys Tarasyuk (The Chairman of the Rada Committee for European integration) and Pawel Kowal (the member of European Parliament from Poland).

 People-to-people contacts are one of the essential elements guaranteeing proper development of international cooperation. The citizens of Ukraine (which participates in the Eastern Partnership and aims to integrate with the EU) pay high attention to the progress in contacts with the EU’s citizens. On the basis of the works of the EU – Ukraine Parliamentary Cooperation Committee we can state that the EU’s short-stay visa obligation for Ukrainian citizens is one of the main obstacles in development of mutual cooperation. The level of cooperation with the EU Member States as well as frequency of foreign travels of Ukrainian citizens is high enough not to be limited to local cross-border traffic in bordering regions. Ukrainian society is increasingly mobile and the European Union is one of the main destinations of interest for its citizens, not only for material reasons but also in the context of developing common European values.

The report includes such important issues as:

 – Legal basis and regulations of the EU-Ukraine visa relations

 – Execution of the EU-Ukraine Visa Facilitation Agreement. Statistics, governmental and NGO’s assessments

 – Possible misimplementation of the EU-Ukraine Visa Facilitation Agreement and difficulties outside the scope of the Agreement (with the examples of concrete cases)

 – Outcome of the new EU member states joining the Schengen area

 – Baltic states experience of the introduction of the free national visas for Ukrainian citizens

 – Risk factora in the process of liberalization of visa policy towards Ukraine

 – Questions to the EU institutions, EU member states and Governmenta Ukrainian bodies

 – Conclusions and recommendations

 – Annex

Full version of he article you may find here: upload/Final_Joint_Visa_Report.doc