Vice-Chair of the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade Pawel Zalewski has said he believes that the European Parliament will ratify the Association Agreement with Ukraine by May 2013 and that informal consent to the provisional application of certain provisions of the agreement, including its deep and comprehensive free trade area, has already been given.
“My position is the following: we need to start working on this agreement as soon as possible. As an EP rapporteur on a deep and comprehensive free trade area, I would like the European Parliament to set a good example to other parliaments [in EU member states] in terms of ratification. We will ratify [the agreement] by May,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.
Speaking about the need to obtain the consent of the European Parliament on the provisional application of the Association Agreement after its signing, he said that such informal consent had already been given.
“At its last plenary meeting the European Parliament called for the speedy implementation of the interim provisions of the Association Agreement. The parliament, wishing to give a positive signal to Ukraine, gave its informal consent on September 12 in a resolution on the pressure exerted by Russia on Eastern Partnership countries, urging the [EU] Council to ensure a speedy interim application of the agreement after its signing. Everything is ready. The EP did its job,” Zalewski said.
He also recalled that the European Parliament was only one of the parliaments, which should ratify the Association Agreement, as the document is also be ratified by all national parliaments of the EU, which, in his opinion, “will take years.”
