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Ukrainian parliament ratifies Ukraine-EU association agreement

The European Parliament has ratified an Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union

© ЕРА/ROBERT GHEMENT

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Ukrainian parliament starts Ukraine-EU AA ratification process

KIEV, September 16. /ITAR-TASS/. The Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (parliament) has approved the bill to ratify the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement with 355 votes in favor.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed a law on association with the European Union immediately after its approval by the national parliament.

Addressing a plenary session, Poroshenko said Ukraine “has embarked on the European path and nobody will dare to shut the door to the EU membership for Ukraine”.

The European Parliament has also ratified an Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union.

The EU parliament has approved a specific resolution in a majority vote at its plenary session in Strasbourg on Tuesday.

Ukraine-EU Association Agreement

Ukraine was engaged in talks on an Association Agreement in 2007-2011. However, in November 2013 it backtracked on the deal, referring to a grave economic situation and fears of a possible negative economic effect for industrial regions of the country.

After Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign the agreement at an Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius, mass riots erupted in central Kiev, resulting in a shift in power at the end of February after almost three months of standoff.

The political part of the agreement was signed in Brussels on March 21, while the economic part — on June 27.

At Ukraine-Russia-EU talks in Brussels on September 12, an agreement was reached to delay the implementation of a free trade agreement with Ukraine at least until the end of 2015, with the regime of free trade within the Commonwealth of Independent States staying in place within that period of time.

At the same time, Russia warned its partners that in case of ‘creeping’ implementation of the Ukraine-EU agreement, it would regard this as violation of the agreements, reserving the right to cancel the preferential trade regime with Ukraine.

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Ukraine crisis Ukraine EU Verkhovna Rada

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