Abstract
This article analyses the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement (EU-Ukraine AA). It argues that this new legal framework, which has the objective to establish a unique form of political association and economic integration, is characterized by three specific features: comprehensiveness, complexity and conditionality. After a brief background of the EU-Ukraine relations, the following aspects are scrutinized: legal basis and objectives, institutional framework and mechanisms of enhanced conditionality, and legislative approximation. In addition, constitutional challenges for the effective implementation of the EU-Ukraine AA are discussed. Based upon a comparison with other EU external agreements, it is demonstrated that the EU-Ukraine AA is an innovative legal instrument providing for a new type of integration without membership.
Highlights
Background of European Union (EU)Ukraine Relations: From Partnership and Cooperation to AssociationThe EU-Ukraine Association Agreements (AAs) will replace the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) as the basic legal framework of EU-Ukraine relations.9 The Partnership and Cooperation Agreements (PCAs), which was signed in 1994, entered into force in March 1998 for an initial period of ten years.10 Pursuant to its Article 101, the agreement is automatically extended each year unless either side informs the other party of its denunciation at least six months before the expiry date
Taking into account the comprehensive nature of the agreement and the underlying conditionality approach, the EU-Ukraine AA occupies, together with the Moldova and Georgia AAs, a unique position within the network of bilateral agreements concluded between the EU and third countries
The EU-Ukraine AA does not go as far as the Economic Area (EEA) Agreement, which extends the entire EU Internal Market acquis to the participating EFTA States on the basis of homogeneity
Summary
“We are here to sign the Association Agreements between the European Union and each of your countries. The Council Decisions state that on the signing of the Agreement that these listed provisions shall be applied on a provisional basis “only to the extent that they cover matters falling within the Union’s competence, including matters falling within the Union’s competence to define and implement a common foreign and security policy.” In addition, the Council, Commission and High Representative adopted a Joint Statement providing that the provisional application of the General Principles set down in Article 2 “is without prejudice to the division of competences between the Union and the Member States on the matters referred to therein.”. A more controversial question concerned the adoption of two separate Council Decisions for the signature and provisional application of the remaining titles of the EU-Ukraine AA on 27 June 2014.37 Despite the Commission’s proposal for a single decision on the basis of Article 217 TFEU, the Council opted to “split off” the provisions relating to the treatment of third-country nationals legally employed as workers in the territory of the parties (Art. 17 EUUkraine AA). It is well known that such a process raises significant challenges in terms of the EU acquis export and, in particular, for the uniform interpretation and application of the shared legal framework within legal systems of third countries. For this purpose, the Association Agreement with Ukraine introduces a reinforced institutional framework, enhanced forms of conditionality and sophisticated mechanisms for legal approximation and dispute settlement which are distinct from other existing models of integration without membership
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