Visa-free regime has been and remains a priority in Ukraine's relations with the European Union.

As this repeatedly stressed, including in my interview to UNIAN in January of this year, our immediate goal is the positive decision of the European Commission on granting Ukraine visa-free travel before Riga Eastern Partnership Summit on 21-22 May. It is about preparing EC report on the implementation  by Ukraine the second phase of the EU visa liberalization Action Plan with the relevant recommendations.

A prerequisite for such a recommendation is meeting the objectives of the Action Plan on which we are working together with the European Commission.

From 23 to 27 March there is a Mission in Ukraine to assess our progress regarding the block 3 "Public order and security" in terms of fighting corruption, counter-terrorism, law enforcement cooperation, the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking.

Mission for the other blocks that evaluated our commitment to visa-free regime in terms of the introduction of biometric passports, illegal migration, protection of fundamental rights, etc., are already carried out.

I want to emphasize that there are still two months before Riga summit and we are confident that with political will and continued strong practical work positive result can be achieved.

The implementation of the technical criteria, including those recommendations made or to be made by European experts on the basis of evaluation missions, belongs to the priorities and is under the personal control of the President and Prime Minister of Ukraine.