Ukraine launches second evaluation of fulfillment of EU visa regime liberation plan

"In order to introduce visa-free regime for Ukrainian citizens travelling to the EU, Ukraine executes practical steps on fulfilling the action plan on liberation of the visa regime every day," Betsa said in a report on the EU evaluation missions, which was published on the website of the Interior Ministry on Tuesday. Eight groups of EU experts will work in Ukraine to evaluate the implementation of the plan, Betsa said. The commission on border security started working in Ukraine on August 31, 2015, the anti-corruption mission – on September 1, the mission on documentation security – on September 2, 2015. Starting from September 7, the mission on combating organized crime will start working in Ukraine, while three more groups, on human rights, human trafficking prevention and asylum, will start working between September 21 – September 25, and the mission to combat funds legalization will start working on September 28. EU experts will meet with officials of central executive agencies and representatives of civil society. The experts will have the opportunity to fully evaluate the readiness of Ukraine to implement visa free regime for Ukrainian citizens. The missions will then draw up reports, taking into the consideration the report of Ukraine on the fulfillment of the corresponding recommendations, given to the EU on August 17, 2015, and subsequently, the EU commission will prepare a report on fulfilment of the second stage of the action plan on visa liberalization. "We highly expect this report to have positive recommendation for Ukraine and Ukrainians, and the visa free regime with the EU will be possible next year," Betsa said.