Reports of a possible termination of the visa-free regime with the EU for Ukraine do not correspond to reality and look like an attempt to escalate the situation before the Ukraine-EU summit, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Olga Stefanyshyna said on Wednesday
KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th September, 2021) Reports of a possible termination of the visa-free regime with the EU for Ukraine do not correspond to reality and look like an attempt to escalate the situation before the Ukraine-EU summit, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Olga Stefanyshyna said on Wednesday.
"Today's news, which raised this issue in the media, attests to nothing more than the desire of some internal forces to undermine the situation on the eve of the Ukraine-EU summit, because actually the report on the visa-free regime for the Balkan countries and the Eastern Partnership was adopted on 4 August and, I quote, the report recognizes that Ukraine still meets the criteria for the visa-free regime with the European Union," Stefanyshyna told the Ukraine 24 channel.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said, in turn, that Kiev had not received official signs from the European Union of a possible termination of the visa-free regime.
"The Ukrainian side has not received official signs from the European Commission about the threat of suspending the visa-free regime with the EU. There are not and cannot be reasons for such decision," the broadcaster quoted the diplomat as saying.
Earlier on Wednesday, the European online newspaper EUobserver reported that a number of EU countries, including France, Germany, and Italy, raised the issue of suspending the visa-free regime for citizens of Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova, as well as residents of the Balkan countries, in connection with massive violations of migration legislation. According to the newspaper, the internal EU document, dated September 27, speaks of the need to launch a so-called visa Suspension Mechanism due to unjustified applications for asylum and numerous violations of migration rules.
