EU will release Georgia’s visa progress report tomorrow – Wall Street Journal

International United States-based daily newspaper The Wall Street Journal claims the Council of Europe (CoE) will release its visa liberalisation report for Georgia and Ukraine tomorrow. 

The two countries reports were due to be released on Tuesday, December 15 but were postponed due to technical reasons. It is understood Georgia’s report was fine however there was a technical issue in Ukraine’s report. 

The leading New York-based newspaper cited an unidentified European Union (EU) official in its latest report. 

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and top European Union officials reached a tentative deal on Wednesday on Kiev’s bid to win visa-free access to the bloc, opening the way for Brussels to back the step as early as Friday,” stated The Wall Street Journal. 

On Tuesday – the day the reports were due to be published – the EU announced the visa liberalisation progress reports for Georgia and Ukraine would be postponed. At the time the EU said the postponement was "due to technical and not political reasons.” 

It was understood the postponement of the issuing of the reports was related to Ukraine as there was an issue the country needed to clarify with Russia.

Meanwhile regarding Georgia the EU officials and local authorities earlier stated the report "would be positive for Georgia”. 

Georgia implemented a number of changes in the past year to fulfill obligations necessary for a visa-free regime to the EU. The country amended 70 laws and also joined several international conventions.

The report will assess Georgia’s progress of implementing its Visa Liberalisation Action Plan (VLAP) and will determine whether or not the country is technically ready to be granted a visa-free regime with the EU.

If the report says Georgia is ready, the European Commission will ask the European Council and European Parliament to launch procedures to offer Georgia a visa-free regime to the Schengen zone.

This process will take about six or seven months, so if Georgia receives positive news in the upcoming report, Georgian citizens will be able to travel to Europe visa free by summer 2016.