As reported by Deutsche Welle, among the positive aspects after the expansion of the Schengen zone, Ukrainian international experts noted only one: for those traveling to several European countries at once, the need to sort out visa issues with many countries has now been reduced. From now on, possession of a Polish, Slovak, or any Baltic state visa is enough to be able to travel to any country from Estonia to Greece and Portugal.
There are many more negative consequences for Ukrainians. The practice of free visa issuance, which Ukrainian citizens enjoyed from most of the bordering Central European countries, has virtually ended. And now only a few categories of citizens can count on free visas.
Visa procedures have become significantly more complicated, as Schengen rules require a much larger number of documents, which has increased both the visa processing time and the number of refusals. 'If earlier the official refusal rate for visas to Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia did not exceed one percent, now we see that every tenth visa applicant receives a refusal,' said Oleksandr Sushko, director of the Center for Peace, Conversion and Foreign Policy of Ukraine. 'Furthermore, despite the agreement on visa processing for Ukrainians at €35, embassies of many countries use mechanisms of additional procedures and force Ukrainians to turn to intermediaries, increasing the cost of visas to €60.'
According to the expert, the statistics of crossing the Schengen zone border only on its Polish-Ukrainian section eloquently testify to the blocking of visits to European countries by Ukrainians. 'A year ago, the overwhelming majority of people crossing the Ukrainian-Polish border were Ukrainians,' said Oleksandr Sushko. 'For every Pole, there were three to four Ukrainian citizens. However, in December of last year, it was 70% Poles and only a third Ukrainians, and as of the end of January 2008, at some border crossing points, for every 20 Polish citizens there was one Ukrainian.'
Experts expressed some optimism regarding the expectations placed on the start of work in September 2008 of the joint Ukrainian-European committee, designed to monitor the implementation of the provisions of the agreement between Ukraine and the European Union on simplifying the visa regime for certain categories of citizens and to respond promptly to identified violations. As for the implementation of the visa-free regime for Ukrainian citizens recorded in the preamble of the agreement, according to most specialists, it should not be expected in the coming years. For this, experts believe, much effort is needed both in diplomacy and in meeting the criteria and standards that a visa-free country must adhere to.