Visa-free regime between Ukraine and the European Union in the night of Sunday, June 11, officially enters into force. The agreement with the European Union on mutual liberalization of the visa regime enters into force 20 days after its publication in the official journal of the EU, i.e. at 00.00 11 Jun 2017.
So, all citizens of Ukraine with biometric passport can visit 30 countries in Europe without a visa and stay there up to 90 days within 180 days, namely, all the countries-EU members except the UK and Ireland, and in 4 States the associated members of the Schengen agreement: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
The first launch bezviz for Ukraine, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Cyprus. Already from midnight, Kyiv time, the Ukrainians will be able to travel to these countries without visas.
After an hour, abolish visas most European countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, France, Croatia, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Sweden.
The last country on the European continent, which starts bezviz with Ukraine, Portugal will be in two hours of the night.
In three hours the same step will take Iceland, which is not part of the EU but is a member state of Schengen.
The last country that June 11 will provide Ukraine bezviz, will be Greenland, which is not a member of neither the EU nor the Schengen area. However, this island is an Autonomous part of Denmark, and therefore will cancel the visa.
The President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko on June 11 will go to the border with Slovakia in the Transcarpathian region, where he will meet with President Andrej Kiska. The presidents will participate in a symbolic ceremony on the occasion of the introduction of a visa-free regime between Ukraine and Schengen countries.
On the same day from 8.00 to 15.00, the staff of the Ukrainian Embassy in Poland and Consulate General of Ukraine in Lublin will be five checkpoints “Dorohusk”, “Zosin”, “Medyka”, “Crest” and “korcheva” on the Ukrainian-Polish border, as well as at the Warsaw airport to control and monitor the situation.
The Ukrainians, who intend in the first hours of action a visa-free regime to travel, you must pay attention to the time difference with some countries of the EU. In each state the decision on the commencement of visa-free regime will come into effect at local time, which may differ from Ukrainian.
As reported, to obtain “bezveze” Ukraine has met 144 criteria of the action plan for visa liberalization, including in the field of security documents (including the introduction of biometric passports that meet the highest international standards and exceeds the minimum requirements of this plan, and launching the visa information system), in the field of border management, the fight against corruption (established key bodies: the National anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine, a Specialized anti-corruption Prosecutor’s office, National Agency for combating corruption, the National Agency for recovery of assets obtained by illegal means), as well as the fight against organized crime and money laundering in the sphere of public order and security external relations and fundamental human rights.
In the consultations of the countries-EU members, representatives of the European Parliament and the European Commission on 28 February it was agreed the launch of a visa liberalization for Ukrainian citizens. The Trialogue between EU Council, the European Commission and the European Parliament on granting Ukraine a visa-free regime ended on 1 March.
On 6 April the European Parliament by a majority of votes supported the granting of visa-free regime for Ukrainians. The Council of the European Union at the level of Ministers of agriculture and fisheries at the meeting on 11 may endorsed this decision.
On 22 may, the document was published in the official journal of the EU.
May 24, Poroshenko said that the daily flow of persons crossing the state border of Ukraine in the West, could grow with nearly 100 thousand people to 20% after the introduction of a visa-free regime with EU countries. Thus, according to him, the experience of Moldova and Georgia shows that such an increase was only 35-40%.
On June 10 the President of Ukraine launched a symbolic “timer bezveze”, which counted the last 12 hours to the entry into force of the visa-free regime with the EU. “This will be the final “farewell” of the Russian Empire and the words “back in the USSR” we’ll hear, only listening to the Beatles, and never going back to the Soviet Union, because we are proud and free nation, back into the family of European peoples”, – said Poroshenko.
