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Visa Facilitation Agreement between the EU and Ukraine:what’s new ?

The EU-Ukraine negotiations on the amendment of the Visa Facilitation Agreement has been finalized. So what awaits for Ukrainian visa applicants next year?

In January 2012 the fourth anniversary of the beginning of implementation of the Agreement on Visa Facilitation between the EU and Ukraine will be passed. The latter is considered as one of the most important tool to facilitate visa requirements for citizens of Ukraine in relations with the EU member states.

Since that time the Agreement has received lots of different, sometimes contradictory, commentaries. It has been seen either as the "main visa facilitation tool" or as the "one of the biggest disappointment".

Concluding of the Agreement was accompanied by the establishment of the Joint Experts Committee aimed to adjust its shortcomings and improve specific components. The process has been under the watchful gaze of the public which expected the agreement to provide them with considerable facilitatation of visas procedures.

In overall, the first year of implementation of the Agreement became an important indicator for all stakeholders of the visa facilitation dialogue.

Not only the effectiveness of the Agreement’s rules and regulations, but also the technical conditions and political will of stakeholders for further development of the document’s positive changes potential were revealed.

Civic Initiative “Europe without Barriers” has been carried out the monitoring of the implementation of the Agreement for four years, among other things fixing changes and trends in the EU member-states’ visa practices towards Ukrainian citizens. At the same time we offered our proposals for amendments necessary to remove the deficiencies of the Agreement. Some of them were taken into consideration by the negotiation groups and included in the final version of the amended and approved Agreement on the Facilitation of the issuance of visas (more on the amendments see below).

The recent outcomes of our monitoring revealed that the benefits of the Agreement has expired or are close to exhaustion, therefore information about the completion of the next round of negotiations on the Agreement revision in favor of Ukrainian applicants is a long awaited event. The agreed amendments require ratification by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and therefore the practical application of new provisions of the Agreement will enter into force approximately by the second half of 2012.

So what advantages the amended Agreement will bring for Ukrainian applicants in 2012 and to whom it is addressed?

The list of the privileged categories is expected to be broadened:

List of categories of citizens having the right to obtain the long-term and free visas will be enlarged with the representatives of non-governmental organizations, professional associations, religious communities, participants in the EU official programs on Cross-Border Cooperation.

Adjustment of the term «journalist»

The provisions defining the list of the main documents necessary for certain categories of citizens envisaged in the Agreement have been refined. In particular the latter concerns the representatives of the mass media as one of the most active part of the society who according to the before established practice had to submit as basic document for visa obtaining the official request from the journalists’ professional associations. New amendments foresee, apart from the request, the possibility to submit the letter from the employer what considerably facilitate the process of applying for those journalists who are not members of any professional association of journalists. Besides, this amendment will also cover technical staff that hasn’t been included before to none of the privileged categories.

Validity of visas

The issue of validity of visas was one of the most problematic regarding the difficulties in practical implementation of the provisions of Art. 5 of the Agreement. The experts of “Europe without Barriers” have repeatedly stressed the failure of consular officers in complying with rules on issuing multiple long-term visas valid for up to 1 and up to 5 years. In most cases, the consulates interpreted this provision literally and were reducing the overall term of validity of the long-term visas, even for those applicants who had clearly positive visa history.

According to the latest wave (summer 2011) of our public monitoring, the number of issued visas valid for 2-5 years consisted less than one percent.

According to the new amendments to the content of the Agreement, the parties have clearly identified the terms of validity of the multiple-entry visas: 1 and 5 years, rather than up 1 and up to 5 years according to the wording of the current text of the Agreement.

That is the clarification offered and supported by the Europe without Barriers. We hope that amendment will help to solve the problem of the so called "fictitious" multiple-entry visas, when the latter is granted with unlimited number of entries, but valid for only 1-3 months, and even less.

Abolition of increased fees (70 EUR)

Under the current Agreement consulates are allowed to charge a visa fee of 70 EUR from citizens who submitted required documents for visa application according to the accelerated procedure. Now it is expected that those citizens who live far from the place of applying will have the right to apply within the accelerated procedure at no additional charge.

Source: Europe without Barriers