The European Union will postpone a free trade zone with Ukraine under the Association Agreement until January 2016, according to a press release published on the website of the Council of the European Union Monday, RIA Novosti reported.
Today’s decision delays until 1 January 2016 the provisional application of the Agreement’s title on trade and related matters, including the establishment of a free trade area,” according to the release.
The Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement is a treaty that presupposes political and economic association between the parties.
The political provisions of the agreement were signed in March, after the then president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted and an interim government came to power. The economic part of the agreement was signed by the current president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in June.
Earlier in September, Ukraine and the EU parliaments ratified both parts of the Association Agreement but postponed the implementation of the EU-Ukraine Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement until December 31, 2015.
The agreement to delay the treaty’s implementation was reached at a trilateral Russia-Ukraine-European Union meeting in Brussels, held after Moscow expressed concerns that the implementation of the treaty carries economic risks for Russia and Ukraine.
