EUObserver: Brussels to meet Yanukovych with 'a friendly EU declaration on visas'

Ukraine's new leader, Viktor Yanukovych, is planning to visit the EU capital Brussels on Monday (1 March), three days following his inauguration in Kyiv and more than a week before a planned trip to Moscow. The president elect is in talks with the office of EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton to come to Brussels, UKRINFORM reported citing EUObserver.

The first visit to the EU is intended to signal Yanukovych's foreign policy priorities and 'to help dispel his image as a Kremlin stooge', but 'the bloc is unlikely to reward him with an early deal on visa-free travel,' EUObserver believes.

Poland at an EU foreign ministers meeting on Monday (22 February) stuck its neck out with a proposal for the union to reciprocate by offering Ukraine a roadmap for visa-free travel when the president drops by.

A roadmap would not commit the bloc to lifting travel barriers if Ukraine failed to pass milestones, such as passport security reforms. But it would offer a start date and a target end date for talks and would be an important political signal for the new Ukrainian elite as well as for ordinary Ukrainians.

The Polish proposals represent progress for Ukraine after just Lithuania, Estonia and Slovakia backed a similar idea at an EU meeting last November.

But there was not enough support round the table for the EU to make an announcement next week, EUObserver notes.

Describing the developments, EUObserver quotes a French diplomat as saying that 'We have clearly stated in our previous agreements with Ukraine that visa-free is a 'long-term perspective.' 'Nothing has changed'.

An EU official said: "Perhaps we can find a middle ground between the roadmap and the status quo," suggesting that the Yanukovych meeting could see a friendly EU declaration on visas, but without the roadmap being put in place.

The news is unlikely to be greeted warmly in Kyiv. Ukraine's EU affairs minister, Konstantin Yeliseyev, has battled against the EU's arm's length visa policy for the past three years, while accusing EU powers of a 'lack of strategic vision' in the east, EUObserver says.

UKRINFORM

Related news:

• 23.02.2010 19:24:22
  Yanukovych, as president, vows to act in national interest of Ukraine, not Russia
  
  
• 19.12.2007 19:24:22
  Yanukovych receives greetings from leaders of foreign countries
  
  
• 19.12.2007 19:24:22
  Kravchuk fears Ukraine could become Russia's satellite under Yanukovych