In summer this year, Ukraine and the European Union finally initialed a far-reaching Association Agreement. Apart from paving the way for a close political association between Kyiv and Brussels, this unique treaty text includes extensive provisions for a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area.
If signed, ratified and implemented, the Association Agreement – the EU’s largest ever treaty with a non-member state – would make Ukraine part and parcel of the European integration process.
The Agreement would put the relations between Kyiv and Brussels on entirely new grounds, and provide for a comprehensive “Europeanization” of Ukraine’s economy, political system, and public administration. It could one day be seen as having been the first step towards a full membership of Ukraine in the EU.
