European Parliament excludes Ukraine visa-free travel vote from agenda

The European Parliament decided not to include in its November voting calendar a bill to enable visa-free travel for Ukrainian citizens, the eurointegration.com.ua news site reported on Oct. 31. Ukrainian and EU diplomats had said the EU Council and European Parliament would approve in early November a new legal mechanism that would halt the visa-free regime when needed, which was the major hurdle to its approval for Ukraine and Georgia, the news site reported.    

The exclusion of a bill to enable visa-free travel to the EU for Ukrainians doesn’t mean the issue won’t be considered before Nov. 24, when the Ukraine-EU summit is held, said in response Kostiantyn Yeliseyev, Ukraine’s deputy presidential administration head. A political agreement could be reached to include it in the agenda at the last minute, he said, as reported by the Ukrainian News agency. The main basis upon which the EU will decide to introduce the visa-free regime is Ukraine’s fulfillment of 144 required criteria, he said, stressing that it’s support by the European Parliament President Martin Schulz.

Zenon Zawada: Schulz and the rest of the European bigwigs can support the visa-free regime all they want, but there’s a sizable majority of populist-nationalists who are putting the brakes on Ukraine’s bid. At an Oct. 27 meeting of EU ambassadors, French and Belgian diplomats raised concerns about Ukraine’s lackluster efforts to address corruption, hinting at Ukraine’s failure to meet all the visa-free criteria. The Russian lobby is particularly strong in these countries, as are anti-immigrant political parties.

We see it as less than 50% likely that Ukrainians will get their EU visa-free regime this year. Other stumbling blocks – besides a difficult vote in the European Parliament – include Turkey’s demand for visa-free travel for its citizens as well. An international scandal is certain if Ukrainians and Georgians were to gain favor over the Turks, who have deep ties with countries like Germany. We expect the latest broken promise from Ukrainian President Poroshenko.