The Parliament made another step towards the visa-free regime with EU

The Parliament approved a number of laws that are needed to proceed to the second phase of the plan on liberalization of visa regime with the EU.

In particular, the Parliament passed the controversial law on preventing and combating discrimination in Ukraine, which the "Svoboda" party had a lot of complaints about.

272 MPs voted for it in the second attempt, after several most controversial provisions had been removed from it.

The law defines the term "discrimination", "indirect discrimination", "aiding in discrimination," but the provision on "declared intention of discrimination", which the "Svoboda" were worried about, was removed from it.

The law also expands the list of grounds, discrimination on which shall be prohibited, and defines forms of discrimination.

Deputies also supported another "visa" law on state anti-corruption policy.

289 deputies voted for this law.

The law is part of an action plan for visa liberalization.

It brings Ukrainian regulations on punishment for corruption in line with international standards.

Specifically, criminal liability for offenses in the public sector and corruption in the private sector is introduced.

According to the law, an offer and a promise of a bribe will be criminal offenses and providing of false information in the declarations will be punished.

The law will make it possible to introduce external control over the accuracy of the data in the returns on assets, income and expenses.

According to the head of the Parliament Oleksandr Turchynov, after the adoption of these laws, Ukraine actually proceeds to the second phase of the Plan on visa liberalization.

According to him, after that we can expect that the visa-free regime with the EU could be introduced by the end of this year.

Source – Ukrainska Pravda