Representatives of the Ukrainian CSOs and think tanks welcome the conclusion of the negotiations between Council of the EU and European Parliament regarding approval of the visa-free regime suspension mechanism for the third countries. We hope that this will facilitate swift adoption of the decision on granting visa-free regime to Ukraine and Georgia.

We call on the leaders of the EU member states to confirm at the EU Summit that Ukraine has fulfilled all the requirements for the visa liberalization, and to endorse a political decision on the immediate launch of a trilogue and further visa liberalization for the citizens of our countries.

We would like to avail of this opportunity to stress once again that the decision to grant the visa waiver for the Ukrainian citizens is of crucial political importance. The level of confidence of our citizens in the EU and the pro-European reforms, ardently supported by the Ukrainian expert community, depends on how fast this decision is adopted.

Ukraine has successfully fulfilled all the requirements of the Visa Liberalization Action Plan which has become an effective leverage for advocating Ukrainian reforms. The VLAP made it possible to achieve significant results in the fight against corruption (e.g. adoption of the legal framework and creation of a system of new anticorruption and law enforcement institutions, and launch of mechanisms to prevent corruption, in particular, the system of electronic declaration of assets and income of public officials), antidiscrimination, migration policy, readmission, etc.

Civil society organizations will continue to take active part in the advocacy and implementation of reforms by the time they reach the point of irreversibility.

At the same time, we also call on the European Union to continue to monitor the sustainability of the reforms implemented under the VLAP.

This appeal is supported by:

1. Civil society coalition «Reanimation Package of Reforms»
2. Ukrainian Think Tanks Liaison Office in Brussels
3. NGO European Pravda
4. NGO Anti-Corruption Action Centre (AntAC)
5. NGO “Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law” (CEDEM)
6. Transparency International Ukraine
7. Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation
8. Institute of World Policy
9. NGO “Europe without barriers”
10. СentreUA
11. NGO “Civil Society Institute”
12. International charity organization “Environment – People – Law”
13. NGO “Union of archaeologists of Ukraine”
14. NGO “Center for Local Self-governance”
15. Institute of socio-economic transformation
16. Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research
17. International Renaissance Foundation

Appeal of the civil society organizations of Ukraine to the President of the European Council,  Mr. Donald Tusk, and to members of the European Council concerning visa liberalization – PDF