Main news of November 23-24 on issues of freedom of movement and introducing the visa free regime with the EU
Ukraine-EU summit started in the morning of November, 24 in Brussels, where parties are to talk over issues bilateral relations, including 120 mln euros of financial support for public administration reform (104 mln) and fight against corruption (16 mln).
As Yevropeyska Pravda says, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has arrived to the building of Council of the EU, where he was met by presidents of European Commission, European Parliament and European Council.
After their meeting negotiations will continue in a wider format of working lunch. Among participants are vice-premier Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin, Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan, Minister of Energy Ihor Nasalyk, Kostyantyn Yeliseev, Natalia Mykolska, Iryna Geraschenko, Borys Lozhkin, Andriy Kobolev.
Earlier it was reported that agreement on cooperation between Ukraine and Europol will not be signed during summit as it was planned before.
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Brussel correspondent of RFE Rikard Jozwiak, whose insider information is oftenly quoted by Ukrainian media, suggests that introducing of suspension mechanism that defines timeframe of visa waiver for Ukraine and Georgia may be postponed till presidential elections in France.
EWB comment: We should note that not all Mr. Jozwiak’s predictions come true
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Meanwhile EP President Martin Schulz told to journalists that he doesn’t know about any decision on postponing suspension mechanism till French elections. Also he added that mechanism can not be agreed because of position of some countries.
“I don’t know about this. It is not true that it is because of France only. As I know, Belgium, Italy, Germany and other countries have warnings. And it depends not on the elections result in France, but on the EU members’ ability to reach an agreement”, – he said.
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Ukraine plans to sign an Agreement on facilitation of the issuance of visas. Project of the Agreement was adopted by Cabinet of Ministers on November, 23.
According to Ukrainian Cabinet’s website, th document was developed in the context of adaptation of Ukrainian visa and migration policy to the EU standards and based on results of Ukraine-Switzerland negotiations.
