Brussels – The EU Council plans to legislatively secure the agreements reached by Ukraine, Russia and the EU on Sept. 12 to postpone for one year the implementation of the Association Agreement concerning the creation of a free trade area.
‘The Council should change its decision of June 20, 2014 on the basis of the [European] Commission’s proposals,’ Maja Kocijancic, spokesperson for the EU High Representative for foreign affairs and security policy, told Interfax-Ukraine.
She said that the signing of the Association Agreement with Ukraine had been approved by this decision and that it had also been determined which parts of the agreement could be temporarily applied prior to its ratification by all EU member states.
Kocijancic said that due to the decision to postpone for 14 months the provisional application of some provisions of the Association Agreement concerning the establishment of a free trade area, only a number of political provisions of the agreement would be applied from Nov. 1, 2014.
‘The provisional application does not apply to the whole agreement, but to selected parts: a free trade area, as well as such important elements of the remaining part of the agreement as general provisions, foreign policy, internal affairs and justice, sectoral cooperation and the institutional part. While the provisional application of the free trade area will be delayed until the end of next year, other important provisions will be provisionally applied as expected,’ Kocijancic said.
She also said that the whole agreement would enter into force after ratification by all 28 EU member states.
Kocijancic noted that as part of the agreements reached at the tripartite talks between Ukraine, Russia and the EU, the EU Council and the European Parliament, on the basis of the proposals of the European Commission, would have to make a new decision on continuing the effect of autonomous trade measures for Ukrainian goods until the end of 2015.
However, she said that the decision envisaging the abolition of import duties on Ukrainian products, which has been in effect since April 2014, had already led to an increase in imports from Ukraine by 14 percent.
