On Monday 26 September, the European Parliament civil liberties committee adopted by a large majority (38 votes in favour, 4 against, with one abstention) the proposal to waive visa obligations for Ukrainian citizens entering the Schengen area of free movement of people.
Once the visa waiver is endorsed by the Parliament and Council of the EU, Ukrainians who have a biometric passport will be able to enter the EU area without a visa for 90 days in any 180-day period, for business, tourist or family purposes.
On 5 September, the civil liberties committee approved similar regimes for Georgia and Kosovo. MEPs added some additional conditions for the latter (see EUROPE 11617). The regime proposed for Turkey is subject to a separate process because it is linked to the EU-Turkey agreement on the management of migration flows (see EUROPE 11515). Ankara has not yet respected all the required criteria (65 out of 72 criteria) explained the Commission on Tuesday 27 September, ahead of the publication of a progress report on implementing the EU-Turkey agreement.
Slow progress at Council
The most advanced "visa" dossier involves Georgia but it is still struggling to get through at the Council. Member states and their MEPs must reach an agreement beforehand on the visa waiver suspension mechanism in the event of irregularities but discussions in this connection our turning out to be more protracted than expected (see EUROPE 11555). An inter-institutional negotiating session was due to take place on Tuesday 27 September but according to the Slovak Presidency, it had still not taken place. A spokesperson explained that the Presidency is "doing everything possible to push forward in this domain".
The outcome of the suspension mechanism is, in any case, closely linked to the regime for Georgia. The point for adoption in the Georgian regime is provisionally included on the agenda of the EU permanent representatives' meeting (Coreper) on Wednesday 28 September, a Council source stated. The same source added, however, that, "if this meeting of negotiators on the suspension mechanism does not take place, then the point in question will not be included on the agenda". According to this source, the difficulty is due to the fact that the European Parliament and Council do not agree on the procedures and their respective roles in the event of having to activate the suspension mechanism. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)