22 September 2011
Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister Andriy Klyuev said he expected the milestone Association Agreement between Ukraine and European Union to be signed at the upcoming annual bilateral summit on December 15 in Kyiv, according to Ukrainian News. Last week, EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Štefan Füle said there has been substantial progress on the agreements and that the negotiations had moved into the final stage. The Association Agreement, once signed, will require ratification by all EU member states. A first-of-its-kind Deep & Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement covering all trade-related areas (including services, intellectual property rights, customs, public procurement, energy-related issues, competition, et cetera) will be embedded in the new Association Agreement. In related news, French Ambassador Jacques Faure told Kommersant, in comments published this morning, that the new Association Agreement will not include a clause pledging a membership perspective for Ukraine.