News
26.06.2014
Foreign Ministry wants to ratify association deal with EU in July
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry wants to ratify the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement in July 2014. First Deputy Foreign Minister Natalia Halibarenko said this at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday, when asked by a Ukrinform reporter when the document could be ratified.
"We would like to ratify [the Association Agreement] in July. Unless a session of the Verkhovna Rada is closed, we have a chance, in principle, to submit [the agreement] for ratification," she said.
Halibarenko also said that Ukraine should not delay the ratification of the agreement, because the effect of a unilateral preferential regime between Ukraine and the EU expires on November 1.
"If we fail to ratify the agreement on time, there will be a gap between the regime that will cease to be in effect on November 1 and the free trade agreement that will not come into force. So we will put our market and our exporters in a bad situation, because the regime they use will suddenly stop working for a while," she said.
In this regard, she expressed hope that the Ukrainian parliament "will hear the government's position and will not delay ratification."
