Page 17 - bne IntelliNews weekly newspaper – Russians lose showdown at EBRD AM

Eastern Europe
May 12, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 17
Maltese Minister for Home Affairs and National Security Carmelo Abela said in the statement. “It follows the completion of the necessary reforms by Ukraine in a number of areas including mi- gration, public order and security, external rela- tions and fundamental rights.”
Furthermore, the revised suspension mechanism recently adopted by the EU makes it possible for Brussels to suspend such liberalisation, if there are serious migration or security issues with Ukraine, Abela added.
The same day, President Poroshenko said that he is going to visit the European Parliament in Strasbourg on May 17, where “the relevant leg- islative act will be solemnly signed”. “Probably, this will be one of my most important visits in three years of service at the post of President of Ukraine,” he added.
According to the president, around the date of June 11 European countries will turn on the green light for visa-free short-term trips for the owners of Ukrainian biometric passports. “There will be no more queues in embassies and visa centres. There will be no more exhausting riga- marole with paper collection,” Poroshenko said.
He also underlined that the visa-free regime is much more than just a simplified way to travel abroad, but “is a giant step towards Europe, to- wards assertion of human freedom and independ- ence of our state”.
“We [will] get rid of the post-Soviet past and in- creasingly become part of the common European civilization,” Poroshenko said.
Russia, which is fighting a proxy war with Ukraine in the country’s east after having annexed the ter- ritory of Crimea, was unimpressed by the move.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Konstantin Ko- sachev, described the step to the Sputnik news agency as a “carrot on a string” that does little in the way of easing the current system. “I think
that we should be calm about the visa waiver for Ukrainian citizens by the European Union.
It is rather a symbolic act than a radical change of the situation for the Ukrainians, taking into account the number of conditions and require- ments that remain for them,” Kosachev said.
CHANGES ARE GOOD
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