Alleged abuses committed by Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, and some Western Balkan countries have triggered a discussion on suspending visa-free travel to the European Union, media outlet EU Observer reported, referring to an internal EU document from Sept. 27.
Among the abuses cited are unlawful residency and unfounded asylum claims.
According to the document, Germany, France, and Italy have recently become frustrated with alleged abuses of visa-free travel. In particular, it mentions “unauthorized residence offenses” from citizens of Albania, Moldova, and Ukraine.
“In case of little or no improvement by third countries, the European Commission should, in our view, emphasize that triggering the Visa Suspension Mechanism is a real option.” the German delegation said.
Under the Visa Suspension Mechanism, an increase of more than 50 percent in illegal stays or asylum applications with low approval rates can lead to visas being reintroduced.
Belgian representatives draw attention to the “alarming number of asylum applications in 2021 compared to previous years” from Moldova. They believe that the number of asylum seekers from Ukraine needs to be monitored “to a lesser extent” than from Georgia and Northern Macedonia but are still concerned about the visa-free regime.
“In general, Ukraine remains a cause for concern. More specifically, this concerns indicators related to justice and security, as it seems that even a few years after the abolition of the visa regime, problems in this area persist,: the Belgians elaborated.
The Czech Republic said it had seen many unfounded asylum claims from Georgian, Moldovan, and Ukrainian nationals.
“Altogether, visa-free nationals constitute 47.4 percent of all asylum applications this year (an increase from 38.5 percent in 2016).”
The Czechs also noted an increase in “illegal residency.”
However, both Belgium and the Czech Republic think the Visa Suspension Mechanism “has so far not been able to prove its usefulness.”
The document appeared a week after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Crimea Platform summit.
“We discussed how to strengthen the EU-Ukraine relations ahead of our summit in October,” von der Leyen wrote on Twitter, following the gathering.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it didn’t receive any official signals from the European Commission about the threat that the visa-free regime with the bloc will be abolished.
“There is no reason for such a decision, and there can be none,” the ministry’s spokesperson, Oleg Nikolenko, told Ukrainska Pravda. He noted that on Aug. 4, the European Commission published the fourth report on the fulfilment of requirements by the Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership countries, including Ukraine, which analyzed 2020 and the first half of 2021.
“The report contains a positive assessment of our country’s compliance with the criteria of the visa-free regime,” Nikolenko said. Visa-free travel for up to 90 days to the EU has been considered an essential element of Ukrainian-EU integration.
