EU values in integration-oriented agreements with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia

Abstract

Association agreements between the EU and third countries have become one of the most recognizable brands of the EU’s external policy. Treaties of this kind were signed by the EU Heads of State and governments with three of the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood countries (Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia) on 27 June 2014 and were followed by ratifications by national parliaments in Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine.1 This was the culmination of a very long negotiation and signature process that had begun in 2008. This new generation of EU Association Agreements (AAs) will substitute outdated partnerships and association agreements, which were concluded in 1994-1998.2Ukraine’s road towards the signature of its AA was the most dramatic. Due to mounting economic and political pressure from Russia, the government of Ukraine decided to suspend the preparation for signature of the EU-Ukraine AA on 211 The Moldovan Parliament expediently ratified the Association Agreement on 2 July 2014. It was followed by the Georgian Parliament on 18 July 2014 and by the Ukrainian Parliament on 16 September 2014. On the same date, the European Parliement approved the three agreements. The latter agreements are now subject to a lengthy process of ratification by the parliaments of the EU Member States. Therefore the interim application of the Association Agreements was authorized by the Council (see Council Decision 2014/295/EU of 17 March 2014 on the signing, on behalf of the European Union, and provisional application of the Association Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community and their Member States, of the one part, and Ukraine, of the other part, as regards the Preamble, Article 1, and Titles I, II and VII thereof [2014] OJ L161/1). However, the application of Title IV (deep and comprehensive free trade area) of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement has been postponed until 1 January 2016 due to political and security pressure of the Russian Federation. See COM (2014) 609 Proposal for a Council Decision amending the Council Decision on the signing, on behalf of the European Union, and provisional application of the Association Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community and their Member States, of the one part, and Ukraine, of the other part, as regards Title III (with the exception of the provisions relating to the treatment of third-country nationals legally employed as workers in the territory of the other Party) and Titles IV, V, VI and VII thereof, as well as the related Annexes and Protocols, 23 September 2014.