"The deal still needs to be confirmed by member state representatives (Coreper) and endorsed by the Civil Liberties Committee and the Parliament as a whole, probably in January… The visa waiver for Georgia will enter into force on the same date as the review of the visa suspension mechanism," the statement reads.
The proposal for the visa waiver for Georgia was issued by the European Commission on March 9 since the country met the conditions for the visa requirement exemption. On July 7, the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs also recommended to grant visa-free travel to the residents of Ukraine, Georgia and Kosovo.
Earlier in December, the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament and the European Commission reached an agreement on emergency suspension mechanism to be triggered in case of overwhelming migration from the third countries. Such an agreement has been among the conditions raised by the Council of the European Union for liberalization of a visa-regime for Ukraine and Georgia.
The initiation is set to be voted by the European Parliament before the Council of the European Union adoption.
On December 9, a source in the parliament told RIA Novosti that the European Parliament would vote on the mechanism of suspending visa-free regimes with third countries on December 15.
