The Council confirms the strategic importance for the European Union of promoting stability, good governance and economic development in its Eastern neighbourhood. The EU is committed to deepening relations and strengthening cooperation with its Eastern partners.
Deutsch-belarussische Gesellschaft
With regard to Ukraine, the EU-Ukraine visa dialogue examining the conditions for visa free travel as a long-term goal should now enter a fully operational phase on the basis of an action plan setting out all technical conditions to be met by Ukraine before the possible establishment of a visa-free travel regime.
The action plan will be "two phased" and will be tailored to Ukraine‘s current progress. It will contain two tiers of benchmarks: preliminary benchmarks concerning the policy framework (legislation and planning), which in turn will pave the way for meeting more specific benchmarks, covering effective and sustainable implementation of relevant measures including concrete results on the ground. Moreover, the effective implementation of visa facilitation and readmission agreements will remain of particular importance.
Through the Council, EU Member States will be fully associated in the different steps of the process, including by being consulted on the draft action plan and both sets of benchmarks. The draft action plan will take into account the expert analysis produced during the exploratory phase of the visa dialogue and will be accompanied by an initial assessment of the impact of possible future visa liberalisation.
The Council will also be kept informed through Commission reports on the fulfilment of the first set of benchmarks, in view of taking a decision to initiate an assessment of the second set of more specific benchmarks. Furthermore, Member State experts will participate in the monitoring missions conducted by the Commission services and in regular consultations in relevant Council Working Groups. The Council underlines that there will be no automaticity in this process and progress in the fulfilment of benchmarks will be closely examined and decided upon by the Commission and the Council.
The Council also reiterates the importance of people-to-people contacts and welcomes the opening in June 2010 of the visa dialogue examining the conditions for visa-free travel of citizens of the Republic of Moldova to the EU as a long-term goal. Through the Council, EU Member States will be fully associated in the different steps of the process, including by being consulted on the draft action plan and both sets of benchmarks. The effective implementation of the readmission agreement will remain important in this context.
