Euromaidan Press asked people on Kyiv’s streets what they expect from a visa-free regime. Here is what we heard:
“I think that it won’t be introduced because we have such a mess in the country,”Vasyl, a construction consultant.
“I don’t really believe in it. We’ll see,” Andriy, a designer.
“Are you sure it will happen in the summer?”, Olha, a student.
Many still can not afford traveling abroad, whether with visas or without.
“I do not have an opportunity because of time and money,” Andriy.
“I am a student, the visa free regime doesn’t give any privileges for me,” Maria, a student.
The visa-free regime with EU does not mean:
- easier employment of Ukrainians or Georgians to European companies;
- acceleration of the movement towards EU membership for Ukraine or Georgia.
But what it does mean?
“It will mean some freedom. It means that Europe trusts us. It is a certain level of our development,” a Ukrainian.
“It means understanding what European culture means – which we don’t know,” a Georgian.
“The pluses include: saving time, nerves, and money, free access to the whole EU, and the feeling of belonging to another caste,” a Moldavian.
“Visa-free travel to the European Union member states isn’t only a symbol of the fact that Ukrainians have chosen a pro-European path. They wanted to go direction-West and we need to enable them as good as we can to go direction-West. There are many other issues we have to support them in but the most problematic development is the war in the East of Ukraine,” Rebecca Harms, a member of EU-Ukrainian delegation of the European Parliament.
