Division 1.6 The Agreement/bilateral agreements

Article 13(1) of the Agreement stipulates that:

‘1.

As from its entry into force, this Agreement shall take precedence over provisions of any bilateral or multilateral agreements or arrangements concluded between individual Member States and Ukraine, insofar as the provisions of the latter agreements or arrangements cover issues dealt with by the present Agreement.’.

As from the date of entry into force of the Agreement, provisions in the bilateral agreements in force between Member States and Ukraine on issues dealt with by the Agreement ceased to apply. In accordance with Union law, Member States have to take the necessary measures to eliminate the incompatibilities between their bilateral agreements and the Agreement.

However, Article 13(2) of the Agreement stipulates that:

‘2.

The provisions of bilateral Agreements or arrangements between individual Member States and Ukraine concluded before the entry into force of this Agreement providing for the exemption of the holders of non-biometric service passports from the visa requirement shall continue to apply without prejudice to the right of the Member States concerned or Ukraine to denounce or suspend these bilateral agreements or arrangements.’.

The following Member States have a bilateral agreement with Ukraine providing for the exemption from the visa obligation for holders of service passports: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

In accordance with Article 13(1) of the Agreement, in so far as those bilateral agreements cover biometric service passport holders, Article 10(2) of the Agreement takes precedence over those bilateral agreements. In accordance with Article 13(2) of the Agreement, those bilateral agreements, which were concluded before the entry into force of the amending Agreement, continue to apply in so far as they cover non-biometric service passport holders, without prejudice to the right of the Member States concerned or Ukraine to denounce or suspend those bilateral agreements or arrangements. The visa exemption for the holders of non-biometric service passport granted by a Member State only applies for travelling on the territory of that Member State and not for travelling to the other Schengen Member States.

Should a Member State have concluded a bilateral agreement or arrangement with Ukraine on issues not covered by the Agreement, that exemption would continue to apply after the entry into force of the Agreement.