EU Council, European Parliament reach compromise on visa-free travel for Ukraine, Georgia and Kosovo (TV Most, TASS)
The Council of the European Union and the European Parliament have come to terms over the mechanism that would allow to suspend visa-free agreements which needed to be done before Ukraine, Georgia and Kosovo could be granted visa-free travel rights, a source in the EU Council told TASS.
"Yes, during inter-institutional consultations a compromise has been reached on a mechanism to suspend visa-free accords," the source said. Now this decision needs to be approved at a European Parliament session.
On November 17, the Council of the European Union announced that the EU was ready to waive visas for Ukrainians but the implementation could only take place once the bloc drew up a mechanism to suspend visa-free agreements. The European External Action Service headed by Federica Mogherini has been drawing up this mechanism according to the EU strategy on immigration control.
This new mechanism will be included in all visa-free agreements so that the European Union has an opportunity to suspend visa-free travel should any country’s citizens massively abuse the visa-free travel regime.