The concept and essence of “acquis communautaire” in the context of the study of the process of liberalization by the European Union of the visa regime

Abstract

The article investigates the interpretation of the concept “acquis communautaire”, it`s essence and meaning in the context of the analysis of the process of adaptation of Ukrainian legislation in the framework of the tasks of the “Visa Liberalisation Action Plan” with the EU. Initially, the authors pay attention to fundamental steps towards the approval of the European integration direction of Ukraine as the main vector of the state foreign policy. Thus, articles and sections of resolutions of different years of adoption – “On the Main Directions of Ukraine’s Foreign Policy” of 1993 and “On the Principles of Domestic and Foreign Policy” of 2010 – have been analyzed and compared. The legal action in which “acquis communautaire” as the legal system of the European Union was introduced and interpreted for the first time – the Law of Ukraine of 2004 “On the State Program for Adaptation of Ukrainian Legislation to the Legislation of the European Union” was defi ned. The issue of introduction of the concept on the example of personal data protection policy was defi ned, including a painful and rather leading in scientifi c and discussion discussions the issue of translation into Ukrainian of important concepts of EU norms, which slowed down the process of adaptation measures. Separately, the authors have formulated a list of measures aimed at harmonization of Ukrainian legislation with “acquis”. As part of the task, a
chronological table with the title of the legislative act and description of the results of amendments to the said act has been compiled. Thus, 10 urgent documents of implementation of European norms on personal data protection, which were defi ned in the “Visa Liberalisation Action Plan” (VLAP), were analyzed. The study allows us to follow the process of harmonization of European legislation to the Ukrainian one on the example of one direction, namely the policy of personal data protection. Also, based on the identifi ed problematic issues, it is proposed to take measures to improve the methods of implementation, which in the future will have a positive impact on the development of the European integration of Ukraine.