Ukraine got a bit closer to its goal of joining the European Union on Monday, with the announcement that Ukrainians will be given visa-free travel in the Union for short stays. This marks the first progress in membership talks for Ukraine since last year’s top-level meetings failed to bring results given political conflicts taking place in Ukraine at the time.
The announcement came at the conclusion of an EU-Ukraine Summit in Brussels on Nov. 22.
However, the change will not go into effect until Ukraine fulfills the terms of a so-called “road map,” that includes creating international passports with biometrical information, and strengthening measures to counter illegal migration. No start date has been set for the new visa status.
In addition to the visa status, EU and Ukrainian officials also said they hope to reach a free trade agreement by the middle of the next year, a step that could allow Ukraine to join the EU more quickly.
EU officials also pointed out that Ukraine had achieved political stability since Viktor Yanukovych took office last February.
“We will welcome the positive steps taken by Ukraine particularly in the economic and energy sphere. We look to Ukraine’s leadership to increase reform momentum in these areas,” said EU President Van Rompuy, according to the EU press service.
However, Rompuy said that their mutual relationship would depend on “the quality and the depths” of democracy and reforms in Ukraine, according to the AFP.
“We want to see progress on Ukraine’s democratic reform agenda. This is indeed essential for an open and modern society,” said José Manuel Barroso president of the European Commission.
Although Yanukovych’s main foreign policy priority remains joining the EU, he has at the same time grown much closer to post-Soviet Russia, after years of a strain between the two former foes.
Since Yanukovych took office, defeating Orange Revolution leaders, Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko, political stability has been accompanied by a deterioration in press freedom and other human rights violations. Yanukovych’s Party of Regions was also accused of widespread fraud during local elections in October.
“Our strong impression is that human rights are not the agenda of a new government,” the chairman of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union on Human Rights, Arkadiy Bushchenko said at a press conference in Brussels on Monday. The Helsinki Union hosted a discussion parallel to the EU-Ukraine Summit focusing on the poor state of democracy in Ukraine.
While President Yanukovych was in Brussels for the meetings, at home about 3,000 people marched down the main streets of Kyiv to protest the newly passed tax code in Ukraine. The demonstrators were demanding that the president veto the code that imposes massive tax increases on small- and medium-sized businesses. Protesters say the new taxes will put them out of business.
Bushchenko commented from Brussels he had been informed that when police found about 150 buses carrying people to take part in the protests they were blocked from entering Kyiv.
“We observe that it became a sustainable and planned policy from the side of the authorities to preclude any peaceful assemblies and freeze them by directly precluding them from gathering or by punishing them for participating,” said Bushchenko.
In October this year, the Ukrainian Constitutional Court adopted the 1996 constitution, thus annulling the 2004 constitution, which had expanded the powers of Parliament. The president regained greater control of the national security service, turning the country into more of a presidential republic than a parliamentary democracy.
With additional reporting by Vladimir Borodin in Kyiv and Loretta Duchamps in Brussels.
The announcement came at the conclusion of an EU-Ukraine Summit in Brussels on Nov. 22.
However, the change will not go into effect until Ukraine fulfills the terms of a so-called “road map,” that includes creating international passports with biometrical information, and strengthening measures to counter illegal migration. No start date has been set for the new visa status.
In addition to the visa status, EU and Ukrainian officials also said they hope to reach a free trade agreement by the middle of the next year, a step that could allow Ukraine to join the EU more quickly.
EU officials also pointed out that Ukraine had achieved political stability since Viktor Yanukovych took office last February.
“We will welcome the positive steps taken by Ukraine particularly in the economic and energy sphere. We look to Ukraine’s leadership to increase reform momentum in these areas,” said EU President Van Rompuy, according to the EU press service.
However, Rompuy said that their mutual relationship would depend on “the quality and the depths” of democracy and reforms in Ukraine, according to the AFP.
“We want to see progress on Ukraine’s democratic reform agenda. This is indeed essential for an open and modern society,” said José Manuel Barroso president of the European Commission.
Although Yanukovych’s main foreign policy priority remains joining the EU, he has at the same time grown much closer to post-Soviet Russia, after years of a strain between the two former foes.
Since Yanukovych took office, defeating Orange Revolution leaders, Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko, political stability has been accompanied by a deterioration in press freedom and other human rights violations. Yanukovych’s Party of Regions was also accused of widespread fraud during local elections in October.
“Our strong impression is that human rights are not the agenda of a new government,” the chairman of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union on Human Rights, Arkadiy Bushchenko said at a press conference in Brussels on Monday. The Helsinki Union hosted a discussion parallel to the EU-Ukraine Summit focusing on the poor state of democracy in Ukraine.
While President Yanukovych was in Brussels for the meetings, at home about 3,000 people marched down the main streets of Kyiv to protest the newly passed tax code in Ukraine. The demonstrators were demanding that the president veto the code that imposes massive tax increases on small- and medium-sized businesses. Protesters say the new taxes will put them out of business.
Bushchenko commented from Brussels he had been informed that when police found about 150 buses carrying people to take part in the protests they were blocked from entering Kyiv.
“We observe that it became a sustainable and planned policy from the side of the authorities to preclude any peaceful assemblies and freeze them by directly precluding them from gathering or by punishing them for participating,” said Bushchenko.
In October this year, the Ukrainian Constitutional Court adopted the 1996 constitution, thus annulling the 2004 constitution, which had expanded the powers of Parliament. The president regained greater control of the national security service, turning the country into more of a presidential republic than a parliamentary democracy.
With additional reporting by Vladimir Borodin in Kyiv and Loretta Duchamps in Brussels.
