Commission to propose EU Council sign agreement with Ukraine once Kyiv … – NRCU
Commission to propose EU Council sign agreement with Ukraine once Kyiv fulfills all tasks, says Fule
14-05-2013 17:45
The European Commission intends to inform the Council of the European Union about the readiness of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement (AA), as well as request a mandate to sign the AA once Kyiv creates the necessary conditions by fulfilling the tasks outlined earlier, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fule said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, commenting on the upcoming decision of the European Commission regarding the signing of the AA.
“The Commission is to adopt a proposal on the Association Agreement and will send it to the Council. This is a proposal for getting a mandate to sign the AA, and concerning the opening for provisional application of parts of the Agreement, once the Member States assess that the conditions for this are right. The Commission is going to make very clear that for such assessment all conditions, to which ministers of foreign affairs referred on the December 10 Foreign Affairs Council Conclusion, have to be fulfilled,” he said. Fule emphasized that the upcoming decision “has essentially a technical nature.” “It is needed at this point of the time because it will provide the member states enough time to follow all necessary procedures within the Council and within all domestic legislation. This time has been chosen also to insure that member states are ready: “A” – to make an assessment close to Vilnius summit (whether conditions are right for signing the AA), and “B”, if such an assessment is positive, to sign the AA. But the assessment as such is for later,” he said. Asked about the decision-making procedure, Fule explained that the material the Commission is going to send to the EU member states is a legislative proposal for a Council decision. “But it is a procedural and technical document indicating that the work on the AA was finalized by the negotiators and that in principle the AA could be signed if later on the political assessment states that all conditions are fulfilled,” he said. Fule added that the Commission would submit to the EU Council the proposal for signature. “Without this proposal, the Council would not be in a position to sign the Agreement. It will be within the powers of the Council to decide if and when to sign the AA,” he said. Asked about possible time frame for the EU Council to make a decision, Fule did not rule out that the decision could be made in October. “The Foreign Affairs Council in late October could be one of the possibilities, but it will be up to the member states to make this decision,” he said. “I would like to underline that the adoption of the Commission’s proposals will enable the EU to move ahead with the necessary preparatory arrangements to enable a possible signing at the Vilnius Summit. The signing of the Agreement remains conditional on determined action and tangible progress by Ukrainian authorities on all of the benchmarks set out by the December 10, 2012 Council Conclusions. The Commission will continue to monitor Ukraine’s progress,” Fule said.