Strasbourg, 16/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 16 September, the European Parliament (EP) and the Ukrainian parliament both ratified the association agreement between the European Union and Ukraine. By 534 votes in favour, 127 against and 35 abstentions, MEPs approved the recommendation on the draft Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the association agreement between the European Union and Ukraine, a recommendation drafted by Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (EPP, Poland) which “gives its approval to the conclusion of the agreement”. The Ukrainian Parliament also approved the agreement, the 355 MPs present voting unanimously in favour.
Symbolically, the two parliaments voted at virtually the same time, watching each other on a video system. This double approval received a long ovation from the members of the European Parliament. However, some of their number criticised this communication operation. “We were a simulacrum of a Parliament. We were in communication and only in communication”, said one. Another spoke out against the “pressure from one assembly onto another and vice versa, which does not seem very democratic”.
Like Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, following the vote, the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, immediately signed a letter calling on the European institutions to take the necessary provisions to allow the provisions to be set in place right away.
An “historic” moment.
Schulz said that this was an “historic moment”. “By giving its solid support to the association agreement, the European Parliament has defended democracy in Ukraine. With this vote, we are supporting the people of Ukraine to allow Maidan's dream to come true”, he added. On a live link from the Rada, Poroshenko said that Ukraine had taken its first step towards joining the EU. “I firmly believe that the vote will prove to us that the power that has been unleashed is unstoppable”, he stressed. “Not a paragraph, not a word, not a comma of this text will be changed”, he added, calling on the Ukrainian government to allow the text, which has been negotiated over four years, to enter into force on Wednesday 17 September. Saryusz-Wolski said that the ratification of the agreement “institutionalises” the European choice of the Ukrainians. “This is an historic moment, the conclusion of Ukraine's long journey towards the EU”, said the rapporteur. “However, the association agreement is not the end point of EU-Ukraine relations, we have a future together and we must defend it against the external pressure brought to bear by Russia”, he added.
Just before the vote, MEPs debated the association agreement and the situation in Ukraine. “Today (16 September), we are going to make history, the association agreement will be ratified and this is our way of stating that this agreement must not be changed, no modifications will be made to it”, stressed Elmar Brok (Germany) on behalf of the EPP, during the debate which preceded the vote. “The Parliament has sent out a very strong political message, it is now up to the Pparliaments of the member states to continue the process”, said the president of the EP-Ukrainian Parliament delegation, Andrej Plenkovic (EPP, Croatia), calling on all parliaments which have not yet done so to ratify the text. Six states have already ratified it.
The GUE group, on the other hand, was more sceptical. German MEP Helmut Scholz advised against the ratification and proposed a regulatory framework for economic relations between the EU, Ukraine and Russia. “We are being asked to endorse something which has not been the subject of analysis or discussion within the EP, the EU or Ukraine”, he pointed out.
Criticism of extra time for implementation.
The Parliament also criticised the fact that the implementation of the economic plank of the agreement has been postponed until 31 December 2015. Although Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Füle sees this postponement as “good news”, a good many MEPs fail to share his opinion. “The EP was surprised when a decision was made to postpone this association agreement, we could have avoided a lot of problems if there had been prior agreements. The delay must not be seen as (…) a victory for Russia”, said Gianni Pittella of the S&D. “It's a bit like a couple getting married and putting off their honeymoon for 15 months”, said Lithuania's Petras Austrevicius, on behalf of the ALDE. Rebecca Harms (Greens/EFA, Germany) described the postponement as “self-deception on the part of the EU”. The delay is “deplorable”, said Saryusz-Wolski.
Füle pointed out that it was Ukraine which had asked for implementation of the economic plank to be put back. “Ukraine's economic and financial system is being tested to its limits by what is happening in the East. Because of this, it wanted more time to prepare itself to fulfil the tariff conditions”, he added. Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht said that. without the postponement, “there would not have been a ratification” on 16 September.
Commission welcomes the ratification.
In a joint statement, the presidents of the European Commission and of the European Council, José Manuel Barroso and Herman Van Rompuy respectively, welcomed the simultaneous ratification of the association agreement by both parliaments, describing it as an “important stage in the political association and economic integration of Ukraine with the EU”. “The association agreement will serve as a model for Ukraine's transformation into a modern and prosperous European democracy”, they added. The president of the Committee of the Regions, Michel Lebrun, also welcomed the ratification. “The implementation of the agreement, with its ambitious objectives of political, economic and global societal reforms, will require strong political will”, he stressed. (CG)