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Kiev fails to meet one third of criteria for visa-free regime with EU — ambassador

Preventing corruption and countering it was assessed as ‘partially fulfilled’ because the formation of appropriate institutions has not been completed

© ITAR-TASS/Vitaly Grabar

KIEV, May 18. /TASS/. Ukraine has met only 10 criteria out of 15 for liberalization of visa regime with EU, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the EU Konstantin Eliseev said on Monday.

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"If we speak the language of numbers, out of 15 criteria, according to which Ukraine’s implementation of the second stage of the action plan for visa regime liberalization was assessed, complete or almost complete fulfillment was noted on 10 criteria. Four more criteria, which deal with fighting organized crime, human trafficking, protecting national minorities and providing asylum, were fulfilled partially with good prospects of further progress. And only one criterion - preventing corruption and countering it - was assessed as ‘partially fulfilled’ because the formation of appropriate institutions has not been completed," Eliseev told Segodnya.ua.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin met with EU Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos earlier today and urged to include in the final document of the Riga summit "the signal about the timeframe for introducing a visa-free regime for Ukrainian citizens." Avramopoulos, in his turn, said the European Commission will prepare the next report on Ukraine’s implementation of the action plan for visa regime liberalization until the end of 2015.

The Eastern Partnership summit will take place in Riga on May 21-22. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko earlier called on EU to support introducing a visa-free regime with Ukraine at the summit and expressed hope it will enter into force on January 1, 2016.

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Ukraine crisis Visa regime

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