Pavlo Klimkin: Ukraine will not hold back ratification of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement

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Kyiv, 10 July 2014 – There is no intention to hold back ratification of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement. “I might sound too emotional but I was working on the Association Agreement for four years not to be holding off its ratification now. No one is going to hold back ratification of the Association Agreement, I do assure you as a Minister,” stated Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin at a briefing in the Ukraine Crisis Media Center.

The main problem is to implement the Agreement as the “European integration implies actual reforms required for future membership in the European Union”. In order to achieve it National Plan for Implementation of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement has been worked out. “We have already passed the first draft to the European Commission for revision and comments. President Petro Poroshenko has come up with another option, he suggests compiling the national implementation programme. It will become important roadmap,” noted the Minister.

Ukraine is preparing a set of documents for ratification of the Agreement, Key ministries are dealing with its approval. “It’s a matter of several weeks. We have signed the Agreement not just to demonstrate our loyalty to the European integration. I have prepared the document not as a civil servant but in order to have it practically implemented. Permanent trilateral consultative group has been established, so no one could accuse us in disregarding practical aspects. Ratification is not being postponed. We have to arrange for it properly and to ensure its respective financing,” summed up Pavlo Klimkin.

Trilateral consultations Ukraine- European Union- Russian Federation aiming to discuss implementation of the Agreement will take place in the nearest time. Karel De Gucht, European Commissioner for Trade, Pavlo Klimkin, Foreign Affairs Minister, Valery Pyatnytsky, Government’s Commissioner for European Integration and a representative of the Russian Ministry of Economy will participate.