KIEV, November 20. /TASS/. Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko said on Friday parliaments of all European Union member states have completed the process of ratification of the association agreement with Ukraine.
"The Brussels [Belgian - TASS] parliament has ratified the association agreement with Ukraine. Now association with us has been ratified by all states," he wrote on his Twitter account.
The association agreement was to be ratified by all the 28 member states of the European Union to have it come into force from January 1, 2016.
In October 2015, the document was ratified by Cyprus’ parliament, and in November - by the Greek parliament.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands plans to hold a consultative referendum on the European Union’s association agreement with Ukraine on April 6, 2016, despite the fact that its parliament has already ratified the agreement.
In March 2014, Ukraine signed a political section of the association agreement with the European Union. The economic section was signed in June 2014. At a meeting in Brussels on September 12, 2014, Russia, Ukraine and the European Union agreed to postpone the establishment of a free trade zone between Ukraine and the European Union and keep in place the tree trade regime within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) till December 31, 2015. A number of Ukrainian goods was granted a tax-free access to the European market whereas Europe’s exports to Ukraine were still subject to taxation for that period.