European Commission Proposes to Abolish Visas With Ukraine

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — The European Commission on Wednesday made a proposal to the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament to add Ukraine to the list of countries whose citizens can travel to the Schengen area without a visa, the Commission said in a statement.

"Today we follow up on our commitment to propose short-stay visa-free travel to the EU for Ukrainian citizens with biometric passports – facilitating people-to-people contacts and strengthening business, social and cultural ties between the EU and Ukraine,” Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos said, as quoted in the statement on the EU Commission's website.

According to the statement, once the proposal is adopted, Ukrainians who hold biometric passports will no longer need visas for trips of up to 90 days to the Schengen area. The visa-free travel will not apply to Ireland and the United Kingdom, as well as four Schengen associated countries — Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, the statement added.

Last December, the European Commission gave a positive assessment, confirming that Ukraine successfully met all benchmark requirements necessary to abolish the visa regime with the bloc.