MOSCOW, September 12 - RAPSI. Moscow expects to receive a response in October from the European Union on Russia's visa liberalization proposal, First Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Denisov told RIA Novosti Wednesday.

"The negotiations are underway. They are going in the right direction, bringing the parties closer to a consensus," he said.

Denisov said that the EU is studying Russia's proposals, which "substantially simplify the visa issue [...] for our European partners."

The First Deputy Foreign Minister added that there will be a meeting of the Russia-EU Cooperation Council on Security Issues, headed by the Justice Ministry on the Russian side, in early October.

"We hope that both parties will benefit from the discussions held as part of the Council and will allow both parties to reach an agreement," Denisov said.

Russia is in talks with the EU aimed at amending current legislation and liberalizing visa procedures so as to simplify the crossing of the EU borders for Russian citizens, allowing some citizens to travel without visas. Moscow and Brussels finished discussing the step-by-step transition to cancellation of visas in late November last year. The list of joint measures for working out an agreement on a visa-free regime was agreed at the Russia-EU summit held in Brussels on December 14-15, 2011.