One-third of ‘visa-free’ recommendations already implemented – Ukraine’s Foreign Minister

Ukraine still should to settle the issues of protection of refugees and issuance of ID-cards instead of passports.

As the “Ukrayinska Pravda” (Ukrainian Truth) Ukrainian media outlet reports, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin noted that 18 recommendations out of 54 points, published in the European Commission’s report of May 8, had been fully implemented as of November 12.

Among the issues, which Ukraine still has to settle, are, in particular, the legislative regulation of issuance of the ID-cards instead of the Soviet-pattern passports, as well as protection of refugees and combating illegal migration (adoption of the bills No.3154, No.3155 and No.3159 in the second reading). In addition, according to the Minister, the Government of Ukraine is set to adopt the action plan on implementation of the National Human Rights Strategy.

The Minister described as important for introduction of the visa-free regime the decisions regarding amendments to the labor legislation, distinguishing the jurisdiction of the investigating authorities, the adoption of laws on the State Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine and the national agency for revealing, recovering and managing the assets derived from corruption and other crimes.

“We need to get final conclusions of the European Commission and the GRECO [the Group of States Against Corruption]. As for the mechanism for improving the arrest and confiscation of the property, we need the findings not only of the European Commission and the GRECO, but those of the FATF [Financial Action Task Force] of course,” he said.

According to Pavlo Klimkin, the European partners are interested in the process of launch of the National Agency for Preventing and Combating Corruption, and the process of establishment of the specialized anti-corruption prosecutor’s office in Ukraine.

The report on the implementation of the recommendations is to be released on December 15.

“We hope that it will be positive and will allow us to begin the process of practical preparations to obtain the visa-free regime,” the Foreign Minister said.

As reported, the MPs yesterday supported the amendment to the Labour Code of Ukraine, which prohibits discrimination on the grounds of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation. This amendment was the condition for liberalization of the visa regime with the European Union.