Fifty members of the upper house of the Dutch parliament, the Senate, supported the draft law enacting the ratification of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. Twenty-five senators voted against, Ukraine’s representative to the EU Mykola TOCHYTSKYI informs The Day. “The convincing majority of senators who supported this draft proves that the Netherlands remain Ukraine’s friend and partner on the path of European integration,” emphasized the diplomat.
According to Tochynskyi, as soon as the Netherlands hands the letter of ratification over to the depository (the Secretariat General of the Council of the European Union), which it is to do in the next couple of days, the EU institutions must finalize their procedures for the Agreement to be fully enacted.
“After the completion of the ratification process, the EU will inform Ukraine in a letter about the date of the enactment of the Agreement. According to the existing regulations, this takes place on the first day of the second month following the date of depositing the last ratification letter or the last endorsement document,” explained the diplomat.
Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, was one of the first to welcome the endorsement of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement by the Dutch Senate. “Today’s vote in the Dutch Senate sends an important signal from the Netherlands and the entire European Union to our Ukrainian friends: Ukraine’s place is in Europe. Ukraine’s future lies with Europe. ... Let us harness the positive momentum generated by today’s vote to further strengthen our partnership,” reads Juncker’s special statement on the European Commission website.
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko, on his part, also welcomed the ratification of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement by the Dutch Senate. In his tweet he emphasized that “We are firmly set to pursue our strategic goal. Europe is our civilizational choice! #UkraineIsEurope.”
“THE EU KEEPS ESTABLISHING ITSELF AS AN INFLUENTIAL INTEGRATION PROJECT”
Kateryna ZAREMBO, deputy director, Institute of World Policy:
“It seems that Ukraine and the EU have simultaneously approached two denouements: the ratification of the Association Agreement, which was first negotiated in 2008, and the visa-free regime, initiated in 2010. I would like to particularly emphasize the victory for the European Union: thanks to such projects as the Association Agreement and the visa-free regime for Ukraine, the EU keeps establishing itself as an influential (from the perspective of qualitative democratic transformation in neighbor countries) integration project, even if it might be unaware of the fact.”
