Ukraine to continue to improve agreement on simplified visa regime with EU, says Foreign Ministry

Representative of the visa policy department of the Consular Service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Vitaliy Moshkivsky has noted that Ukrainian diplomats have been actively working on the improvement of an agreement on simplified visa regime with the EU, which was signed in 2007.

"Practical implementation of the agreement has exposed certain inconsistencies, which should be addressed," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.

Moshkivsky recalled that Ukraine held the first round of talks with the EU on this issue on May 6. According to him, they have been working hard to expand the categories of Ukrainian citizens who will fall under a simplified procedure of issuing visas and will get visas free of charge. These should include representatives of NGOs, religious groups, representatives of professional associations, students, and graduate students. In addition, the Ukrainian diplomat noted that Kyiv wants to unify visa procedures for international carriers and media representatives.

"There will be introduced a clearer procedure, which won't allow consuls without objective reasons require any additional documents or make exceptions to the general standard procedure for issuing visas," he said.

Moshkivsky said that Ukraine intends to demand that the wording of a clause of an agreement on simplified visa regime dedicated to visas validity should be changed from "visas valid for up to one year, up to three years, and up to five years" to "visas valid one year, three years, five years."