EUOBSERVER / KIEV - Ukraine has been celebrating Europe Day in several of its cities this week, while calling for closer ties with the EU and for a clearer recognition of its European identity. But for ordinary Ukrainians, the real priority is for the EU to let them travel freely within its borders. At the moment, Ukrainians need a visa to travel to EU countries and the process for getting one is lengthy and expensive. Their frustration with the situation increased when their neighbours, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland joined the EU's borderless zone in December and put in place the same entry requirements as other Schengen countries such as France, Germany and Spain. By contrast, most EU citizens have been allowed to travel to Ukraine without a visa since July 2005. Bulgarians and Romanians, as the newest members of the bloc, were granted the same waiver in January.
Now it may be unavoidable, because the price of free movement within is that the perimeter border is more policed, but at the same time, it's disrupting existing families and trading flows.
We should not be surprised that it can create great resentment for those on the "other side" of the new border.
