EU “Smart Borders” – Easier traveling for Ukrainians?

Now, as we all know, Ukrainian Visa-free travel with the EU should be a lot closer to reality than it actually is.  Particularly as this issue has been deliberately kept free of personality/government image/perception politics and kept fully insulated within the technical and legal requirements to facilitate it.  No more and no less.

The simple fact is, Visa-free travel for Ukrainians is not as close to being a reality as it could be because of the inaction of the Ukrainian politicians failing to pass the necessary legislation and fighting over the business interests when it comes to who will actually get the lucrative contracts to  produce biometric passports etc.

In truth very little blame can be attached to the EU over the failure of Ukraine to do what needs to be done to actually make Visa-free travel a reality for its citizenry.  The goal posts are not moving.  It is in fact an open goal free from effects of  playing field shifting political shenanigans.  Failure to score in the gaping goal is completely and utterly the fault of the Ukrainian political elite – who one suspects are on the receiving end of far fewer Visa refusals than the average Ukrainian.  Quite frankly, nobody else is to blame.

However, whilst the population of Ukraine patiently wait for their lackluster and self-centered elite to do what is necessary to remove what is often a very expensive, logistically burdensome, heavily and often overly intrusive bureaucratic process, the European Commission is trying to convince the European Parliament to engage in a “Smart Borders” project to make travel easier for people from “third countries”.

The cost of this project – an estimated Euro 1.1 billion.  In EU speak estimated is equivalent to saying “at a minimum”.

The system is supposed to divide visitors to the EU into two categories.  Regular visitors (RTS) and occasional visitors (EES).

Regular visitors will apply to be registered as such – and if successful will be given some form of smart/swipe card and can simply swipe their way into and out of the EU – like some form of electronic Schengen Visa centrally issued and centrally monitored.

Occasional visitors will rely on their biometric passports – or not in the case of Ukraine which is still to generate its first biometric passport for the reasons I have listed above.

Those with biometric passport will have the details stored for 6 months on entry – unless they have previously overstayed when such details can be retained indefinitely according to the proposal – Privacy activists no doubt will have issues with “indefinitely”.

Further, all information gathered can be “available to” all national police institutions.  Whether they will be legally bound to delete all information they may take that was “available” after 6 months, I suspect, will become another major issue.  In effect they can “obtain” all biometric data of any non-EU member entering the EU from a centrally held data base (until deleted) at any time – and may not have to delete it after 6 months as the central data base will.

Hmmm.

Privacy issues aside, surely there is only one simple question to be asked and answered here.

Will the new system make life significantly easier for the EU nations, easier for travelers, but strike the necessarily right balance against illegal/irregular migration?  At an estimated Euro 1.1 billion (guaranteed to be much more), “significant” is an issue here!

Anyway, if this manages to get past the European Parliament and actually become a reality, one has to suspect it will not become reality for a good 5 years at least – probably longer.

Will Ukraine have produced a biometric passport by then?

If it has, then many of the legislative (and business interests) that are preventing it actually making Visa-free a reality for its citizenry will have already been overcome.  The technical monitoring phase would be well underway.  Visa-free imminent, in effect.

So whilst the benefits for the EU from this “smart borders” project seem rather limited from the outset (whether that third nation is Ukraine or not) – and are replete with “privacy issues” – the benefits for Ukraine, as long as the politicians get their self-centred fingers out of their incredibly idle arses, should theoretically be zero given the time frames.

……..And yet, I write this in the full expectation of having to register my wife on the Regular Travelers Programme sometime after 2018 – which will have limited benefit to the EU, limited benefit for her and underline just how feckless the Ukrainian political elite across the entire political spectrum actually is.

Not that any of the above will help much with the UK – Due to my wife regularly swapping her eyeballs, altering her fingerprints frequently, and changing the bone structure of her face as often as the bedding, she will necessarily have to continue to haul herself to Kyiv to be “re-biometricised” every time she needs a new UK Visa.

Rather than be offered a postal service option, having already held 4 UK Visas and thus the UK having her biometrics that many times already – we will continue with the idea she is some form of shape-shifter.

Although to be honest, when the next one expires we may never go again – the UK really isn’t that interesting compared to the rest of Europe – and Schengen Visas are easy to get without leaving Odessa should the “Smart Borders” project be rejected and the old systems remain in place.

Biometric Passports and ID Cards – Ukraine

Having finally got around to the core issue of Stage 1 relating to the road map on Visa-free travel as per the document from the EU, the RADA has passed the necessary laws for biometric passports and identified the company that will produce them.

Just how technically good the new law is remains to be seen – amendments to poorly written laws are not exactly unusual with any Ukrainian government.

The company is EDAPS.  That is about all that can be said about the company as nobody outside very select circles  knows who actually owns it, despite it winning numerous government contracts over the years under various governments.  All that is definitely known is that those who own it are no longer living in Ukraine and its parliamentary representative (and lobbying point) is MP Hrytsak.

Obviously a transparent tender and procurement model was deemed unnecessary – again!

Anyway, the point of this post is not to raise further procurement shenanigans, quite simply as if I do there is really nowhere to go with it without knowing who actually owns EDAPS – and I don’t.

Nevertheless, new biometric passports are required by the EU for the Visa-free road map will be produced from 1 January 2013.  The cost will be about $55 which considering the cost of a UK biometric passport is very small indeed – especially when considering how many Ukrainian citizens will want an international passport compared to how many UK citizens want and have them.  There is therefore an obvious question about the profitability for EDAPS with less demand from less citizens for less money, or is the UK simply ripping off the UK citizen?

If the money isn’t going to be in the international passports, where are the profits going to come from?

Also in the new law is a requirement for ID Cards to replace the internal passports of Ukrainians as they expire.  The law also anticipates using said card for driving licenses, sailor ID cards, social security cards – and most importantly as far as I am concerned, those with migrant cards (Permanent Residency).

Now the internal cards will not cost the Ukrainian people directly as the international passport does.  The new cards will be paid for by the government at a projected fee of $8 per person.

Rough mathematics would suggest that EDAPS will therefore get approximately $320 million from Ukraine over the next 10 years or so from internal government funded ID cards – Now that then becomes a far more attractive proposition.

So the question then is are the new internal biometric ID cards necessary?

Well, many EU nations have national ID Cards.  In some nations they must be carried compulsorily and in others not.  I come from an EU nation where national ID cards simply don’t exist at all.

Thus there is no hard and fast rule when it comes to the EU nations and EU norms.

However, there does exist the Schengen ID Card system of nationally produced, EU approved ID cards for internal movement within the Schengen area without the need for a nationally issued international passport.  If Ukraine ever entered the Schengen agreement, government paid for national ID cards would possibly allow for Schengen wide travel without the need for a Ukrainian to buy an international passport.

There are also quite obvious advantages and disadvantages to a “one card does all” system of identification which I won’t bother to list – the point being if Ukraine is changing the ID system, should it consider whether an internal ID system is even appropriate anymore whether by internal passport or ID card?

However, most important is the issue of biometric passports, as it is a step in the right direction as far as the EU Visa-free road map is concerned – and also a necessary one for government egos considering Moldova has moved to Stage 2 of its Visa-free EU road map, whilst Ukraine remains mired in Stage 1 issues – and coming behind the butt of all Ukrainian jokes (Moldova) will never do for the egos of the elite!

More embarrassment? Barroso, Moldova and Ukraine

Only a few days ago I wrote this and suggested that the national embarrassment of coming in second behind Moldova, a nation that is the butt of all Ukrainian jokes when it comes to stupidity, may be a useful lever in EU/Ukrainian relations.

It seems other may also think it not a bad idea either.  Only 2 days after I wrote that, Mr Barosso of the EU added further embarrassment to the authorities in Kyiv by stating that the EU and Moldova expect to sign the Association Agreement between both parties in September 2013, such is the progress that has been made.

That immediately puts pressure on Kyiv to un-stick  the signing of the EU-Ukrainian Association Agreement  currently floundering over issues, most notably Ms Tymoshenko’s incarceration, preventing a signing that would in all likelihood have been completed by now if she had not been jailed.

Unfortunately, that however, now ends the wafting around of the Moldova stick as far as Ukrainian political ego is concerned by the EU.  Nevertheless it has been successful at getting the legislation for Visa-free back to the top of the political agenda now Moldova moves to Stage 2 of the road-map process and Ukraine remains mired in Stage 1 and maybe it will prove equally motivating for the Association Agreement.

When the electoral circus eventually leaves town, it will be the time to look at the policy priorities for the rest of the year.

Embarrassment as a motivational lever? EU Visa-free and Ukraine

Last week the EU appraised Moldova against the Visa-free road-map it was given, pretty much at the same time as Ukraine was given the same road-map.

The up-shot of that appraisal?  Moldova has overtaken Ukraine and can now move from Stage 1 to Stage 2 of the said road-map.  In short it has its technical and legislative act together whereas Ukraine quite simply hasn’t.

Why hasn’t Ukraine got its technical and legislative act together?  The answer is of course, vested interests.  Vested interests alongside a RADA comprised of a majority, from all parties, that are simply unfit to be MPs due to the lack of intellect, law drafting ability and critical thinking.  We won’t even go down the integrity route.

The two major obstacles that have caused Ukraine to be overtaken by Moldova, which is a national embarrassment that I will explain shortly, have been firstly the vested interests over just whom would get the deal to produce tens of millions of biometric passports on behalf of Ukraine, in line with the road-map, and a very lucrative deal that will be.

Needless to say, there have been squabbles amongst the elite over just who would land this contract.  A decision has recently been made, but during the year or so this in-fighting has lasted, Moldova has plodded quietly along.

The second major obstacle has been that of legislation relating to data protection and a single consolidated list of just who lives in Ukraine that holds Ukrainian citizenship and thus would be entitled to hold a new biometric passport.

I kid you not, there is no single list of all citizens in Ukraine that currently exists.  There are regional tax lists, regional voters lists, regional OVIR lists, property registers, registered vehicle owners etc, but there is, as yet, no single national list where everybody is listed.

Again, here, Moldova has stolen a march, although it is a much smaller geographical area with a far smaller populous if we are in need of very limp excuses.

And now to the embarrassment issue.  Moldova and the Moldavians are seen by Ukrainians and Russians alike, something akin to how the Irish are  by the British – they are the butt of all jokes when it comes to stupidity and being intellectually challenged.

Therefore, to have been given a road-map to Visa-free travel within the EU at the same time (or there abouts) as Ukraine and to now be starting on Stage 2 of that road-map whilst Ukraine is nowhere near completing Stage 1, is nothing short of a national embarrassment for the current government.

So much of an embarrassment in fact, that on the day the EU announced Moldova will now begin Stage 2 of the Visa-free road-map, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Konstyantyn Gryshchenko issued a statement stating that Visa-free travel for Ukrainians was the upper-most priority for the Foreign Ministry.

Indeed, almost immediately, the laws on data protection topped the priority list in the RADA and on Thursday 6th September, almost immediately after the news from the EU relating to Moldova reached the ears of the Ukrainian legislators, some 254 of the 349 registered MPs that day voted for a bill on amending certain legislative acts of Ukraine concerning the protection of personal data.

The draft law proposes to change the scope of the law of Ukraine on the protection of personal data, particularly establishing that it applies to all actions on personal data processing, and not only databases with personal data.

The document also proposes to regulate the issue of the cross-border transfer of personal data, and define the European economic area countries, as well as the countries that signed the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, as those that provide an adequate level of personal data protection in the case of transferring personal data to other countries.

In short, Ukrainian national and legislative pride was hurt by the EU announcement and the fact that Moldova has its act together, over this issue at least, far more than that of Ukraine.

Given that so far, EU carrots and sticks have a very limited effect on Ukrainian politics, even if they have a greater effect on policy, maybe continual embarrassment with comparison to the butt of all Ukrainian jokes, namely Moldova, will have much more of an effect in other areas?

It has certainly generated a political and legislative response this time.

Ukrainian Cypriot relations

The EU’s very naughty boy, the offshore tax haven of Cyprus, and Ukraine are getting ever more friendly.

Last week, the Cypriot President paid his first ever visit to Ukraine, and this whilst Cyprus is also holding the EU Presidency.

Amongst the somewhat more bizarre things to happen whilst in Ukraine, President Chrsitofias was given an honorary doctorate by Mariupol University, seemingly on the basis that Mariupol is twined with Paphos in Cyprus.  I wonder if I can get an honorary doctorate from an Odessa university on the basis it is twined with Liverpool?  It would cut out all that tedious research and thesis writing – let alone having to successfully defend said thesis.

Anyway, President Christofias has given his full and public support to Ukrainian integration with the EU last week with no mention of the on-going domestic issues regarding Ms Tymoshenko.  Something that may not go down to well given the Cypriot presidency of the EU at present.

That said, given that Ms Tymoshenko is known to have Cypriot interests and Cypriot fronts for interests, (just as she does in Czech Rep and Poland etc) and undoubtedly so do a lot of the current government, he maybe thought it better not to mention individuals with stakes in Cyprus from either side of the political line publicly.

At the same time, President Yanukovych was stating that Ukraine was seeking observer status with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, talking up the ratification of the FTA with the CIS, and stating that the internal affairs of Ukraine will not be subjected to EU pressure and as such if formal EU integration had to wait, so be it!

One of the very interesting things to emerge from his visit are the plans to scrap Visa fees for Ukrainians to Cyprus.

To the EU relating to migration, Cyprus not being a Schengen nation this presents few problems.  To Cyprus, it presents a massive opportunity to claim a stake in the Ukrainian tourists who head for Turkey and Egypt simply to avoid the tedious hassles in getting a Schengen Visa.  I would expect Cyprus to see a marked increase in Ukrainian visitors very rapidly indeed.

Of course it also allows for Ukrainians to visit their money and off-shore companies without problems too.  And it is not just the Oligarchy who have such companies and bank accounts in Cyprus.  A sizeable and growing number of average Ukrainians also take advantage of this, and why not when it costs only Euro 4000 to do completely legally.

It does however, also open up part of the EU to claims for asylum with relative ease for Ukrainians on EU soil, something the EU has been keen to put as many hurdles in the way of as possible.  Something else that will annoy Brussels about Cyprus no doubt!

The other attraction of Cyrus to the average Ukrainian aside for free visas, the ease of setting up off-shore companies and bank accounts and the natural beauty of Cyprus as a tourist destination, will be the absolute ease of getting permanent residency in Cyprus, and thus within an EU nation (albeit not Schengen).

Undoubtedly, the Cypriot private banks will also be rubbing their hands with glee, as whilst the Cypriot economy may very well be struggling, the private banks are awash with Russian and Ukrainian cash off-shored.  More will surely follow once Visas become free of charge and it takes its place along side Turkey and Egypt as a top tourist destination for the average Ukrainian.

Naturally I have been at pains to state “average Ukrainian” thus far, as the upper ranks of society have no issues already.

In fact in the past year, Cyprus has granted 26 citizenships “by exception” to very wealthy Russians and Ukrainians.  Possibly something for Eurpol to worry about when we consider the sources of some of this wealth to which Cypriot (and by default EU) citizenship has been granted.

That said, when one considers the Russians and Ukrainians (and their associated wealth from dubious sources)  given permanent leave to remain, asylum, or indeed UK citizenship who live in and around London, why should Cyprus not take advantage of the money these people have as well?

Those Ukrainians with money who will now see Cyprus as a top holiday destination will also no doubt consider property there – very much like Spain became for the British 20 years ago – in fact since the issue of free Visas reached the ears of my good lady wife, she has already been hitting the Internet looking at property there.

As she states, despite being married to a UK citizen for almost a decade, she is not entitled to permanent residency in the UK unless she lives there – which she doesn’t want to do – and thus has to arse about with UK Visas when we want to visit.  And as she says, for an island, the UK is quite devoid of sunshine, palm trees and welcoming seas to swim in.

Buying a property in Cyprus, getting permanent residency on an island with sunshine and inviting seas to swim in, on the other hand, for her is very simple indeed.

The abolishing of fees for Visas between Cyprus and Ukraine would seem to be a bilateral win-win for Cyprus as far as I can see.

Are the words of the prophets written on the subway walls?

As is well known to all EU citizens (and some other nationalities), they do not need a Visa to enter Ukraine for up to 90 days in a 180 day period.  It has been this was since 2005/6 for most.

As is well known to all Ukrainians, the reciprocal approach has not yet been delivered, although an official roadmap to achieving this was given to Ukraine in October 2011 and through Ukraine’s own ineptitude, (or rather business squabbles over who will produce the necessary biometric passports required) matters have not progressed as far  and as quickly as they could have.

The issue of who will produce the passports was resolved last week and production of biometric passports will commence in December.  Thus there remains the matter of data protection of the biometric data to legislatively deal with at RADA level.

All jolly good except there is also the issue of several amendments to the initial  roadmap that need to be signed and ratified by certain EU entities.  Those entities namely the European Commission and European Council.  For those unaware of exactly who does what and how things work between the European Parliament, European Commission and European Council, I wrote a a very brief explanation back in February.

However, one wonders why MEPs are now calling on the European Commission and European Council to sign and ratify the amendments to the roadmap.

Firstly, European Commissioner for European Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policies, Stefan Fule, is consistently on the record stating that Visa-free is not an issue to be tied to any other political issues.  He continuously rattles off the policy line that Visa-free is about people to people contact and is not subject to any other political influences or policies other than the required statutory and technical obligations of those nations offered Visa-free with the EU.   A pure and wholesome policy motivator indeed, and a founding overarching principle from the conception of the EU itself.

Ergo, if the European Commission are to believe and act upon the words of one of their most prominent and public figures, let alone one of the EU’s own founding principles, there is absolutely no reason for the delay in the European Commission in signing and ratifying these amendments to a roadmap the Commission itself gave to Ukraine only last year.  By signing the amendments, they do not speed up the readiness of Ukraine to meet the legal and technical requirements or decrease the evaluation time to see these legal and technical changes work, which is likely to be a year or two.

What possible reason can the European Commission give for delaying the signing and ratifying of the amendments to their own roadmap that does not make Stefan Fule seem a liar, namely political strings that he regularly states are not attached?  Does he speak for the EU Commission or not?  Is Visa-free really about people to people contact without any other political influences as he so often states, or is it to become a political lever to use against the current Ukrainian government over unrelated issues the EU has concerns about, in complete and utter contradiction to what Stefan Fule says on behalf of the European Commission?

Next we have the European Council who also have yet to sign and ratify the amendments.  Quite possibly a more tricky proposition given it is compromised of 27 sovereign national representatives each with their own position and thus consensus must be reached.  However, consensus must have been reached for the initial roadmap to be given to Ukraine in the first place and the pending amendments negotiated either with or in the full knowledge of the European Council are unlikely to be much of a hurdle if at all.

This becomes even more difficult to explain when only this week, the European Council penned and passed very quickly, a roadmap for Visa-free with Turkey.  That would be Turkey with a worse reputation for human rights abuses than Ukraine, Turkey with a far worse reputation for media control but also Turkey who will be very useful regarding Syria right now, not to mention a booming economy and a key reliable energy producing and transportation route for the EU.  A carrot for Turkey of course, but a carrot tainted with politics in contradiction to the people to people ideology the EU claims is the pure and only motivator behind Visa-free agreements.

That is not to say Turkey will get Visa-free any faster than Ukraine, but it serves as an example of just how quickly the EU institutions can act with a third nation if it suits their interests.

It has become quite apparent from the Turkish opinion polls that the Turkish public have less and less time for the EU (much like the public of the EU nations to be fair) and now in Ukraine, anti EU graffiti stating “Stop EU” is starting to appear (above the red scrawl in the below photograph) where once it was never seen, despite all major political parties claiming to be pro-EU.

For the EU to loose the public goodwill of the Turkish is careless, to loose that of Ukraine as well is shear stupidity.  The writing, as we can see, is now starting to appear on the wall.  That said, both Turkish and Ukrainian public are very well aware of what Stefan Fule says relating to Visa-fee and also quite aware of the actions of the EU which do not seem to add real substance to his words, all to often seeming to contradict them in fact.

This is also something reflected in comments by some of the greatest friends the EU has in Russia who continually appeal publicly for the EU to do as it says and not spout empty promises and rhetoric in various policy areas.

It seems generally amongst the citizens of the nations in the EU neighbourhood, they are getting very tired of hearing “Yes” when it really means “No”, and are getting rather bored of waiting for the EU to actually walk its own  talk.  The people of the surrounding nations, maybe unsurprisingly, are becoming rather dismissive of EU plans, strategies and promises meant to engage them.

That said, the EU is rapidly becoming perceived as an irrelevance when it comes to influence, even amongst its most ardent supporters, so maybe the dismissive attitude of the people outside the political classes on its borders  has some merit.

Meanwhile, let’s see what happens with the signing and ratification of amendments to the EU Visa-free roadmap.  In all honestly, even if signed and ratified tomorrow, Ukraine is unlikely to be in a position to push for the implementation of Visa-free for 3 or 4 years due to its own ineptitude.

Poland and Ukraine scrap Long Term Visa fees

Sometime during the autumn, giving time for the bureaucrats to do what bureaucrats do within the nations of Poland and Ukraine, the fees for long term Visas for citizens of both nations visiting the other will be abolished.

That agreement was reached between Poland and Ukraine on 13th June, and thus Poland joins Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia in such agreements with Ukraine.

There is a but though.  There is a limit to the length of the long term visas to which this gratis system applies.  The fees are exempted for those visas longer than 3 months but no longer than 1 year.  No different to the existing agreements with Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia.

For all EU members, there is no requirement for a visa to enter Ukraine for less than 90 days (within a 180 day period) anyway.  As yet not the same for Ukrainians going the other way due to Ukraine’s inability to pass the required laws on biometric passports and the storage of personal data held therein, frustrating the roadmap to visa-free travel with the EU and delaying the second phase of a few years worth of assessment once phase one, the legal phase, has been implemented.

The 2015 goal for visa-free with the EU, set by the Ukrainian government, looks likely to be 2017 due to its own inability to legislate for biometrics and data storage rather than any issues created by the EU.  Needless to say, the legislative issue could be easily overcome if it were not for the business interests of those seeking to produce the biometric passports and their friends in the RADA lobbying on their behalf. – Typical – However quite what the EU will look like by then is also open to interpretation with the European Parliament at loggerheads with the European Council over the reintroduction of border checks and the slow erosion of the Schengen visa system.

Anyway whilst the grand visa-free plan is locked within internal Ukrainian business conflict rather than political rejection, side-deals with immediate neighbours, designed to at the very least make matters a little easier and far less costly, seem to be continuing apace.

Some progress is better than none, and to be fair, even when visa-free is eventually sorted out between the EU and Ukraine, that only applies to travel and remaining within the EU for less than 90 days in 180 period.   This deal with Poland, just as with Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia, is for those who need to remain more than 90 days and simply removes the fees from the visa application process for those from either nation in the bilateral agreements.

No bad thing for business people in the region, as long term visas aren’t particularly cheap (and require a lot of administrative preparation).

The unpopularity race – Politics in Ukraine

When all major political parties in Ukraine manage to gain 18% or less individually in the straw polls of public opinion regardless of what provocative or pacifying actions they make take in an attempt to either motivate or buy off the voting public, the one clear result opinion polls show is that the Ukrainian public simply don’t like any of the political choices they have.

Whilst Ms Tymoshenko’s circumstances and hunger strike may be preoccupying Baroness Ashton at the EEAS, not a single spontaneous protest from the people of any note Ukraine has occurred.  In fact even some of the western media sees the hunger strike tactic as flawed.  The Economist recently calling her antics “grating“, and that from a media outlet hardly friendly to the Yanukovych camp (or any authoritarian rule for that matter), and calling foul on her damsel in distress tone.

Over at Der Tagesspeigel my twitter friend Claudia Von Salzen, a stalwart defender of human rights and who regularly highlights Ms Tymoshenko’s plight, does not see her as the lens through which Ukraine should solely be viewed.  She is quite right.

Tymoshenko fatigue seems to be setting in even amongst her foreign supporters, just as it did when she was Prime Minister.

That does not help the current ruling majority however.  They are less popular than a particularly rancid fart in a very air-tight spacesuit.   Then they would be.  They put up the pension age, put up gas and electricity prices, changed the tax code to capture more people, all obviously unpopular, and yet still managed to make themselves more unpopular with insider business deals, plundering the public purse and failing to implement laws they pass that may actually change life even myopically for the better.

In short, the vast majority of Ukrainians do not trust Yanukovych or Tymoshenko and would rather have no government at all than either of those two.  Unfortunately they are the two people who have the only two parties big enough to form a government.  It is therefore absolutely no surprise that none can even pass the 20% popularity threshold.

Only two nights ago, Andrey Shevchenko of BYuT tweeted that BYuT and Yatseniuk’s Front for Change need Klitchko’s party join them to be sure of having a good chance of beating the PoR at the October elections and asking why he has not joined the ranks of the United Opposition yet.

At the same time Carl Bildt tweeted and suggested that Ukraine is going to force the EU into cutting ties.

That being so, the only EU/Ukraine agreement that is not tied to politics, the fate of Tymoshenko and others, or the nefarious actions of Yanukovych and his sponsors, is the road map for Visa-free travel which Stefan Fule consistently states is about the free movement of people and not the politics of a nation.

Very good.  Therefore whether it be the PoR of BYuT that are annoying the EU when in power, and they both have and do, the Visa-free issue should progress regardless theoretically.  Which ever government is sitting in Ukraine when this eventually comes to pass, may get some begrudging recognition by society for actually doing something in their interest.

And yet this process is stalled.  Not by the EU but by Ukraine.  Not for any obscure issues contained within the road map either.  It is stalled over the issue of biometric passports which are necessary as part of the Visa-free agreement and an EU norm for EU nations.

Is it any wonder that the Ukrainian populous have so little faith in their political classes?

One of the few beneficial things for the everyday Ukrainian not hanging by a thread through purely political shenanigans between the EU and Ukraine, and it is the Ukrainian politicians who can’t get their act together once again.

Pathetic!