Association Agreement partially comes into force

Saturday, November 1, 2014 - 15:09 (EET) Section: Latest news

Ukraine and the EU on November 1 start the provisional application of the Association Agreement, which was made possible by completion of the necessary internal procedures, in particular, ratification of the Agreement by the Verkhovna Rada and the European Parliament, as well as, approval of the relevant decision by the EU Council.
This is stated in comments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Ukraine.
“The Association Agreement is a comprehensive and complex document, which covers the areas within the competence of both the European institutions and the EU Member States. A mode of provisional application may be distributed only to those areas of the Association Agreement, which relate to exclusive or mixed competence of the EU, as application of the Agreement in other areas will require ratification by the parliaments of the EU member states,” the MFA noted.
The Foreign Ministry reminded that, in accordance with the tripartite agreements EU-Ukraine-Russia at the ministerial level on September 12, the parties have agreed to a delay in commencement of the deep and comprehensive free trade area until the end of 2015.
“Ukraine intends to properly use this time for practical training to the full establishment of a deep and comprehensive free trade area. Important in this context is a decision, taken by the European Union on 24 October 2014, to extend the autonomous trade preferences for Ukraine, which will be applied prior to the application of the FTA provisions and, in fact, means a unilateral provision, envisaged by the EU Association Agreement, of tariff and non-tariff preferences for Ukrainian goods,” the diplomat said.
Prior to completion of the Agreement ratification process by all EU member states, the legal relationships between the EU and Ukraine, which are not covered by the temporary application, will continue to be regulated in accordance with the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) between Ukraine and the EU of June 14,1994.
“This is particularly true for the approximation of Ukrainian legislation to the EU acquis, in accordance with Article 51 of the PCA, for example in the areas of public procurement, competition, technical regulations and standards, transport, financial services, and the like. In addition, the Agenda of the EU-Ukraine Association, approved by the parties in 2009, remains in force as a common tool for preparation and implementation of the Association Agreement. Given the current conditions it is planned to be updated soon,” the comments read.
“The Ukrainian side welcomes the start of the ratification of the Association Agreement by individual EU member states (Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Malta, Slovakia) and hopes for the rapid completion of the process to ensure that the Agreement comes into force in its entirety as soon as possible, ” the Foreign Ministry said.