Kyiv, July 14, 2014 – Process of the EU Association Agreement ratification can linger for several months, unless the voting takes place at the earliest possible time. It is the statement Ukrainian people’s deputy Andriy Shevchenko made during his media briefing in Ukraine Crisis Media Center. «It is only the President of Ukraine who can submit the Agreement for ratification, and we know that at present Petro Poroshenko is being put under huge pressure on the part of Russia and some members of European Union. This pressure aims at either blocking ratification or dragging the process. There is enormous risk that this Agreement may get hung up for a very long time», – emphasized the people’s deputy.
Currently there is majority for voting in Verkhovna Rada now, and it makes no sense to linger and postpone the process of ratification of EU Association Agreement. Andriy Shevchenko is convinced that «the more we drag out the ratification process the higher is the possibility that there will be more members of Parliament willing to bargain with the President and Ukrainian people for their vote supporting EU Association Agreement ratification».
Both members of Parliament and society are to demonstrate their support to Petro Poroshenko on the issue of the Agreement ratification. Alternatively, Andriy Shevchenko suggested organizing a symbolic European Day at the Parliament: to ratify the agreement and consider a package of bills connected with EU Association agreement. «It includes a bill on technical regulations, acceptance of Rome statute, package of bills that will help Ukrainian agriculture use preferences provided by the Association agreement, as well as changes to the Law on Unified state demographic register. The last one will enable introducing biometric passports which will bring Ukraine closer to visa-free regime with the European Union. We need euro-integration, and not euro-imitation», – explained the people’s deputy. Last but not least, If the EU Association agreement is not ratified by September, Ukrainian producers will not be able to use additional volume of quotas envisaged by the Agreement.