The EU introduced a simplified visa regime for Ukrainians on January 1, 2008. This year, based on the decisions of the September "Ukraine-EU" summit, Kyiv began negotiations with Brussels on abolishing the visa regime. Ukraine hopes that its citizens will be able to travel to Europe without visas in 2012, when the European Football Championship, hosted by Ukraine and Poland, takes place.
"We have ambitious goals, and we would like our dialogue to move to a stage where we can talk about transitioning to a visa-free regime. But this will not happen tomorrow, because there are still many obstacles to overcome," the EU Commission representative is quoted as saying by the agency "UNIAN". In particular, according to Mingarelli, the parties need to agree on ensuring the security of travel documents for travel, as well as ensure effective border management.
"We also need to work together to overcome illegal migration. You see that there are many obstacles that still need to be overcome, but our task is very clear: we need to reach a point in our relations where Ukrainians can move freely," the EU Commission representative noted.