KIEV, May 11 – President Petro Poroshenko will leave for Strasbourg on May 17 to sign a legislative act on granting a visa-free regime to Ukraine.

"In Strasbourg, on May 17 - as we agreed with our European friends - the relevant legislative act will be solemnly signed. This will probably be one of my most important visits during three years of my presidency," the president's statement on the occasion of approval of granting a visa-free regime to Ukraine by the EU council says.

The decision will be posted by the Official Journal of the European Union and will take effect in 20 days, Poroshenko said. "Roughly on June 11, 34 European countries will give the green light to holders of Ukrainian biometric passports paying short-term visa-free visits," he said, adding there would no longer be lines at embassies and visa centers, and "tiresome paperwork would be gone."