13:35 16.09.2014

Verkhovna Rada ratifies EU-Ukraine Association Agreement

3 min read
Verkhovna Rada ratifies EU-Ukraine Association Agreement

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Tuesday ratified the text of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union.

According to an Interfax-Ukraine reporter, 355 out of 381 MPs voted for the ratification of the document. None of the deputies voted against this decision or abstained.

Twenty-six deputies did not vote.

On September 15, the text of the Association Agreement was submitted to parliament by President Petro Poroshenko.

The document will take effect in full only after its ratification by all 28 EU member states. At the same time, the EU will determine the provisional application of the agreement before the end of this process. As for the economic part, as part of trilateral consultations held between Ukraine, the EU and Russia on September 12 it was agreed to extend for one year the regime of trade preferences for Ukrainian exporters, which the EU introduced for Ukraine in March 2014. The application of other points of the agreement on the free trade area was postponed for one year – until December 31, 2015.

The decision on the procedure for the application of this document has yet to be adopted by the European Council, which is expected to determine the regime of temporary application of the document and approve the extension for one year of the regime of unilateral preferences for Ukrainian exports.

The sides said in a joint statement issued after Ukraine-EU-Russia consultations on September 12: "To be able to fully support the stabilization of Ukraine, the [European] Commission is ready, in the event that Ukraine ratifies the Association Agreement with the EU, to propose additional flexibility.

"Such flexibility will consist in delaying until December 31, 2015 the provisional application of the DCFTA [Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area] while continuing autonomous trade measures of the EU to the benefit of Ukraine during this period," reads the statement.

In addition, Ukraine is in the process of preparing a national program for the implementation of the Association Agreement with the EU, which must be approved at the government level. The Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly said that they will start implementing reforms in the state even before the entry into force of the agreement in order to bring the country closer to European standards. In particular, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said on September 15: "The government will implement the agreement starting from the very first day; we have scheduled a government sitting for Wednesday and we will decide on the implementation of this agreement."

The signing of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU was divided into two stages: the political part of the document was signed on March 21, 2014, and the economic chapter was concluded after presidential elections in Ukraine, on June 27.

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