Ukraine moves step closer to visa-free EU travel

(BRUSSELS) - Ukraine moved a step further closer to visa-free travel to the EU on Tuesday when the EU's executive ruled it had put in place the required legislative reforms.

Ukraine "meets the first-phase requirements," a European Commission statement said. "The second phase where the Commission will be checking the implementation of these rules can therefore be launched."

This will see the EU checking whether laws on issuing secure documents or controlling illegal immigration, for instance, are actually in place.

"While important work still lies ahead, this is a very concrete sign to the Ukrainian authorities and citizens that with perseverance the benefits of a closer association with the EU are real and tangible to all," Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said.

Improved travel ties are part of wider EU efforts to cement political and economic links with Ukraine which Brussels has courted for years as part of its Eastern Partnership policy of promoting closer relations with former communist states in the region.

Former Ukraine president Viktor Yukanovych ditched an EU association accord in November under intense Russia pressure but Brussels has since extended many of its provisions to the government in Kiev.