Tuesday

28th Mar 2023

Ukraine '3%' away from EU visa-free green light

  • The Ukrainian PM (r) said Nord Stream II will strengthen Russia's 'monopoly' on EU gas (Photo: consilium.europa.eu)

The EU has warned Ukraine it needs to finalise anti-corruption reforms to get a thumbs up for visa-free travel by the end of the year.

Speaking after talks with Ukraine PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk in Brussels on Monday (7 December), commissioner Johannes Hahn said “the fight against corruption was, is, and stays at the top of our joint priority list.”

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

With the commission due to file a recommendation to member states on 15 December on whether to grant the visa-free perks, he noted: “I’m pretty sure we’ll have a very positive report … but I don’t want to predict the final outcome.”

He said foreign firms also need progress on anti-corruption to invest money in Ukraine and warned Yatsenyuk against calling early elections next year because they would distract from reforms.

EU foreign relations chief Federica Mogherini said the fight against corruption is “key” to closer relations.

An EU source listed the outstanding reforms as: seeing the new “Anti-corruption Prosecutor” start work; seeing the “Anti-corruption Bureau” start work; seeing the new “Anti-corruption Prevention Agency,” which scrutinises politicians’ declarations of interest, start work; and tweaking two laws on confiscation of criminal assets.

The source said Ukraine has ticked “97 percent” of the boxes in the EU’s visa-free list.

He said it’s “impossible, in practice” to finalise the changes by 15 December. But he predicted the commission will, in any case, give a green light, albeit with a list of outstanding items to be completed before EU states take the final decision.

“We can’t give a negative recommendation because of the Ukrainian public. They’ve done so much over the past six months, in terms of street rallies, or civil society pressure, to get parliament to enact proper laws,” he said.

A second EU source said the visa wall might come down “at some point in 2016” if Ukraine does its 3 percent homework and member states endorse the commission's positive recommendation.

For his part, Yatsenyuk claimed Ukraine has already “delivered” on 100 percent of visa requirements.

His main message was the EU should stop Germany and Russia building a new gas pipeline, Nord Stream II, bypassing Ukraine, and should extend Russia economic sanctions.

“We believe this project [the pipeline] has to be stopped … we don’t think it’s in the interests of Ukraine or the European Union,” he said, adding “it gives more of a monopoly to Russian gas.”

On sanctions, he said Russian hybrid forces resumed shelling of Ukrainian positions on Monday.

He also said EU economic measures should stay in place until Russia has complied with the “Minsk” ceasefire accord on “withdrawal of its armies, and [given] back to Ukraine all the Russian-backed terrorist-controlled territories.”

Mogherini noted: “We agreed on the need for full implementation of the Minsk agreement on all sides,” accenting the “all” by way of allusion to reports of Ukrainian violations.

Sources say Nord Stream II will be discussed by EU leaders at the 17 December summit under the banner of the EU’s “energy union” project.

Energy ministers from seven EU states - the Baltic countries, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia - wrote to EU Council chief Donald Tusk asking for the debate. The prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia also requested the talks in a separate letter.

The first of the EU sources cited in the story said it would be “impossible” to stop Nord Stream II on political grounds. But he noted it will have to comply with EU single market laws.

Yatsenyuk also visited commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, who, earlier this year, promised the positive visa-free recommendation, and who, on Monday, gave him a hug and a kiss in front of cameras.

The commission chief also cuddled Russian leader Vladimir Putin at the climate summit in Paris last week.

Opinion

Ukraine: Notes from a European construction site

Ukraine today resembles a giant construction site. Many of its achievements are unseen. Many still left to build. But its people deserve Europe's support, writes its ambassador to the EU.

The great looting of Donbass

Over half of major enterprises in Ukraine separatist zone of Donetsk and Luhansk closed or seized by rebels.

Donbass: a region nobody wants?

The Donbass region in east Ukraine is on the road to becoming a de jure Ukrainian province, but a de facto Russian-backed mafia state.

Column

What does China really want? Perhaps we could try asking

Perhaps even more surprising to the West was the fact that the Iran-Saudi Arabia deal was not brokered by the United States, or the European Union, but by the People's Republic of China. Since when was China mediating peace agreements?

Opinion

Biden's 'democracy summit' poses questions for EU identity

From the perspective of international relations, the EU is a rare bird indeed. Theoretically speaking it cannot even exist. The charter of the United Nations, which underlies the current system of global governance, distinguishes between states and organisations of states.

Latest News

  1. New measures to shield the EU against money laundering
  2. What does China really want? Perhaps we could try asking
  3. Dear EU, the science is clear: burning wood for energy is bad
  4. Biden's 'democracy summit' poses questions for EU identity
  5. Finnish elections and Hungary's Nato vote in focus This WEEK
  6. EU's new critical raw materials act could be a recipe for conflict
  7. Okay, alright, AI might be useful after all
  8. Von der Leyen pledges to help return Ukrainian children

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality
  6. Promote UkraineInvitation to the National Demonstration in solidarity with Ukraine on 25.02.2023

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Azerbaijan Embassy9th Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting and 1st Green Energy Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting
  2. EFBWWEU Social Dialogue review – publication of the European Commission package and joint statement of ETUFs
  3. Oxfam InternationalPan Africa Program Progress Report 2022 - Post Covid and Beyond
  4. WWFWWF Living Planet Report
  5. Europan Patent OfficeHydrogen patents for a clean energy future: A global trend analysis of innovation along hydrogen value chains

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us