16/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - Council completes preparations for signing association agreements. On Monday 16 June, the Council completed the technical preparations for the signing of association agreements with Georgia and Moldova - including a deep and comprehensive free-trade area. The agreements are due to be signed on 27 June. The Council thus adopted the legal acts enabling the EU to sign these agreements and it decided to grant Tbilisi and Chisinau the possibility of provisionally applying the arrangements on free trade before the ratification of the agreements by all 28 EU member states. The Council also approved the legal texts on the conclusion of the two agreements - texts that will have to be ratified formally by the European Parliament. The technical preparations ahead of the signature by the parties still to sign the association agreement with Ukraine are due to be completed shortly. (CG)