BRUSSELS - The EU Council and the European Commission have welcomed the simultaneous ratification of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement by the Verkhovna Rada and the European Parliament and said they look forward to a swift completion of the ratification by all EU member states.
“[The EU Council and the European Commission] recall that the Association Agreement is a bilateral agreement and any adaptations to it can only be made at the request of one of the parties and with the agreement of the other, according to the mechanisms foreseen in the text and in compliance with international law and with the respective internal procedures of the parties,” reads a joint statement of the Council and the Commission on the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.
The EU Council and the European Commission also reaffirmed the importance of adequate preparation for the implementation of Chapter 4 of the agreement, which deals with the free trade area.
As reported, on Sept. 29, the Council of the European Union decided to postpone the beginning of the implementation of the agreement’s provisions on a free trade area between the EU and Ukraine until Dec. 31, 2015.
The decision was made to fulfill the agreement reached on September 12, 2014 by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, Russian Trade and Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev, and European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Guht.
After this agreement was reached, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a letter to the leadership of the European Commission and Ukraine, in which he insisted on the need to adjust the economic provisions of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement.
On September 16, the Ukrainian parliament and the European Parliament simultaneously ratified the association agreement. Negotiations on this agreement have been conducted since 2007.
