Today the Commission adopted its first progress report on Common Steps under the EU-Russia Visa Dialogue making a full assessment of the four key fields essential for moving towards visa free regime with the EU (1. Document security; 2. Migration issues; 3. Public security including anti-corruption; 4. Human rights related to the freedom of movement).
The report uses information gathered during the past two years since the Common Steps document was agreed by the EU-Russia Summit in December 2011 and is based on exchanges of written information and field expert missions.
Overall, the Commission considers that Russia has made progress in the implementation of the Common Steps, many of which can be considered as fulfilled. The assessment carried out has however showed that further work is necessary to address concerns and implement the recommended actions.