Ukraine, Kiev / Trend corr. Z.Novosvitski / The European Parliament ratified an agreement to simplify the visa process with Ukraine on 13 November.
The agreement on visa changes will allow a fixed price for visas at € 35, and additionally, will waive the visa charge for students, journalists and close relatives.
Under the new regulations, the counsel must explain to citizens the reasons if their visa request is denied. The agreement will not apply to citizens of Denmark, Ireland and Great Britain.
A new agreement on readmission regulations also identifies concrete criteria on when and how to repatriate persons illegally residing in EU member-countries and Ukraine. These new policies concern Ukrainian citizens and EU member-countries, as well as stateless citizens. The readmission regulations will be enforced after a two-year period of transition and will not apply to Denmark.
Both agreements were signed in Luxemburg on 18 June 2007 and were initialed in Helsinki on 27 October 2006 during a Ukraine-European Union summit.
In response, the European Union is demanding the cancellation of some visas for citizens of Romania and Bulgaria, in order to establish equal relations with all EU member-countries.
The agreements will take effect after ratification by the Supreme Rada (Ukrainian Parliament).