Ukraine in Arabic | The first European country ratifies Ukraine-EU association agreement
KYIV/Ukraine in Arabic/ Slovakian President Andrej Kiska on Thursday put his signature under the law of his country's ratification of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union.
Recall that the Slovak parliament ratified the agreement on association between Ukraine and the EU on September 24.
September 16, the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament of Ukraine) and the European Parliament simultaneously ratified the Association Agreement. According to the procedure, each of the EU Member States must ratify the document. Currently, six Member States have done it - Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Romania and Slovakia.
The agreement will formally enter into force after the ratification procedure is completed by all countries which can take a few years.
Currently, its provisional implementation will begin on November 1, before the completion of the ratification process. In this case, the implementation of the part of the document relating to a free trade area between Ukraine and EU is postponed to early 2015 - during this time, however, unilateral preferences from the EU to Ukraine, provided by the Agreement, will be in force.