The Castle of Val Duchesse was the scene of the 14th Ukraine-European Union Summit on Nov. 22. (Andriy Mosienko) One clear sign that winning visa-free travel to Europe will not happen anytime soon for Ukrainians can be found in the official statement issued from Brussels on Nov. 22, after the 14th Ukraine-European Union Summit.

“The action plan sets out all technical conditions to be met by Ukraine in order to progress towards the establishment of a visa-free regime as a long-term perspective for short-stay travel for Ukrainian citizens,” the statement reads.

And there are a lot of conditions.

Among them:

• Adoption of legislation on preventing and fighting corruption and establishment of a single and independent anti-corruption agency;
• Addressing external relations issues (including human rights and fundamental freedoms) linked to the movement of persons;
• Adoption of biometric international passports to reduce identity fraud;
• Establishment of training programs and adoption of ethical codes on anti-corruption involving public officials involved in issuing passports, border control and customs;
• Better border management to end Ukraine’s status as a transit point and source of illegal migrants to Europe;
• Preventing and fighting organized crime; and
• Adoption of a national strategy for the prevention and fighting of money laundering.

There are many other similar conditions in the action plan and also in a detailed resolution on Ukraine passed on Nov. 25 by the European Parliament.

When asked during a press conference when Ukrainians will travel to the EU without visas, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso responded that progress depends on Ukraine’s performance. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych declared that Ukraine would meet the conditions by the first half of 2011, requiring rapid and dramatic change in the nation.

Also, Kyiv and Brussels signed a protocol on Ukraine’s participation in EU-funded programs. According to the document, Kyiv will have to contribute financially to the general budget of the EU “corresponding to the specific programs in which Ukraine participates” and, in return, will get access to greater amounts of financing for its own domestic projects.

While praising stability in Ukraine, the EU officials were blunt in speaking about the much needed commitment of the Ukrainian government to common values – what the EU calls human rights, good governance and democracy.

The parties discussed the issue of respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms, democratic values and the rule of law based on an independent and impartial judiciary. They stressed in particular the importance of a free media.”

- The joint statement of the summit.

The Belgian venue for the summit was the old Castle of Val Duchesse, famous for hosting final talks on the Treaty of Rome in 1957, which led to the creation of the European Union. Despite the beauty of the building, the room for the press conference could not fit many European and Ukrainian journalists that showed up for the event, leading guards to unceremoniously and rudely push journalists outside.
Skepticism easily surfaced about the Ukrainian leadership’s will to match lofty democratic rhetoric with actions.

“I don’t see the de-corruption of Ukraine happening any time soon,” said Michael Emerson, a research fellow from the Brussels-based Center for European Policy Studies. “And the example of the tax code and the tax police looks like structural improvement in the conditions for corruption [to flourish]. So, in that sense, the prospect of the EU conditions being satisfied is becoming more remote.”

And devising a plan that Ukraine would fail to meet may have been part of the EU aim, one analyst said.

Amanda Paul, senior policy analyst with the Brussels-based European Policy Center, said: “Perhaps the EU delivered Ukraine an action plan of such difficulty to implement in the hope that Ukraine will never ever implement, so they would actually never have a visa-free regime at the end of the day.”

Others say that the plan is entirely realistic if Ukraine is serious about democracy and European values.

“I don’t think that the action plan is overly ambitious. I think this is a very fair document,” said Viorel Ursu of the Open Society Institute in Brussels. “If you look at the road map [regarding the visa-free regime with the EU] that the Western Balkans received three years ago, the Ukraine’s action plan is more or less the same template.”

Ukraine would like to see its citizens be able to travel to Europe, visa-free, for up to 90 days by the time it hosts the Euro 2012 football championships.

According to the preliminary assessment, it is desirable that the no visa regime with the EU is implemented by 2012.”

- Mykhaylo Pashkov, a foreign policy analyst at the Kyiv-based Razumkov Center.

Given the financial difficulties of Ukraine, whose government is dependent on a $15.5 billion line of credit from the International Monetary Fund, it is hard to see how it will come up with the money to meet EU conditions for visa-free travel and budget contributions to the 27-nation bloc.

Yanukovych did not touch on the costs during the summit.


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