In The EU-Ukraine Association Agreement and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area, Guillaume Van der Loo provides the first comprehensive legal analysis of this complex and controversial international agreement. While key political and legal hurdles towards the signing and conclusion of this agreement are analysed, its scope and contents are scrutinised and contrasted to other international agreements concluded by the EU. Specific attention is devoted to the ambitious “deep and comprehensive free trade area” and the unique provisions related to Ukraine’s approximation to the EU acquis. In particular, this book explores to what extent the agreement can be considered a new legal instrument for ‘EU integration without membership’.

The implementation of the Association Agreement (AA), including the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), between the EU and Ukraine has brought about a qualitatively new situation in the development of border regions and regional societies on both sides of the Schengen border. This volume’s comparative study of the impacts of the AA and the DCFTA on borderlands in Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania will contribute to the identification of new opportunities for cross-border cooperation and policy considerations for its further development.

Diploma Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Economics - International Economic Relations, grade: 1,3, University of Leipzig, language: English, abstract: The Association Agreement, which was signed between the European Union and Ukraine in 2014, opened a big discussion about new challenges in Europe. Many European countries signed similar Agreements and became very quickly therafter full members of the EU. Nowadays there are a lot of opinions and myths about what exactly the Ukrainian Association is, and, in general, where it should bring Ukraine and Europe. This research paper explores the objectives pursued by the EU and Ukraine by the time they signed the Agreement. It provides a full analysis and interpretation of its content and describes how Ukrainian attempt to get closer to the European Union changed the geo-political situation in Europe. This paper is important as it will cast in light the background of the present tragical events in Ukraine and will provide deeper knowledge about the situation. The main hypotheses of this work are as follows: 1. The Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU does not give any guarantees for the accession to the EU and could only be seen as the basis of a prospective future membership. 2. The access to the European integration of Ukraine in the EaP is precluded because of inflexible and “naive” policy of the EU. The ENP has failed and needs to be reconsidered. 3. Russian permanent intervention in the policy decision-making of Ukraine slowdowns its integration towards Western Europe. The paper will be a mixture of description and “data followed by analysis”, going gradually more in depth from the negotiation process to the conclusion of the AA between Ukraine and the EU. To make the argument easy to follow, chronological analysis will be used in dealing with the interval of 2007-2015 (from the beginning of negotiations to the implementation process of the AA).

This book examines the feasibility, content and likely economic impact of a free trade agreement between the European Union and Ukraine. The authors find that a simple and shallow free trade agreement, adding only the elimination of tariffs on trade in goods to the conditions for Ukraine's accession to the WTO, is the most easily feasible option, but would yield only modest benefits for Ukraine and less still for the EU. By contrast, they argue that a deep free trade agreement with the EU, while posing more difficult issues of feasibility, could be a centerpiece of an economic strategy leading Ukraine into rapid growth. Politically, this step would be consistent with Ukraine's European choice and would also be of value to the EU economy in meeting the challenges of globalization and Asian competition. Contributors include T. Huw Edwards (Loughborough University), Ildar Gazizullin, Vira Nanivska, and Olga Shumylo (International Centre for Policy Studies, Kyiv), Daniel Müller-Jentsch (European Commission/World Bank Office for South-East Europe), Matthias Lücke (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), Valeriy Pyatnytskiy (First Deputy Minister of Economy and European Integration, Ukraine), Andreas Schneider (CEPS), Rainer Schweickert (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), and Olexandr Shevtsov (United Nations Development Program, Ukraine).

This paper compares the three Association Agreements (AAs) and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas (DCFTAs) that the EU has concluded with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. It explores, in particular, the main differences in the 'political' and trade-related chapters and the provisions on legislative approximation. Whereas the scope and contents of these agreements are very similar, some specific differences can be identified in view of the different political and economic priorities of the EU's partner countries.

For Ukraine, the signing of the Association Agreement and the DCFTA with the European Union in 2014 was an act of strategic geopolitical significance. Emblematic of the struggle to replace the Yanukovych regime at home and to resist attempts by Russia to deny its ‘European choice’, the Association Agreement is a defiant statement of Ukraine’s determination to become an independent democratic state. The purpose of this Handbook is to make the complex political, economic and legal content of the Association Agreement readily understandable. This second edition, published two years into the Agreement’s implementation, adds new value, charting Ukraine’s progress in putting the Agreement into effect. Two teams of researchers from leading independent think tanks, CEPS in Brussels and the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (IER) in Kyiv, collaborated on this project, with the support of the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida). This Handbook is one of a trilogy examining similar Association Agreements made by the EU with Georgia and Moldova

Deep trade agreements (DTAs) cover not just trade but additional policy areas, such as international flows of investment and labor and the protection of intellectual property rights and the environment. Their goal is integration beyond trade or deep integration. These agreements matter for economic development. Their rules influence how countries (and hence, the people and firms that live and operate within them) transact, invest, work, and ultimately, develop. Trade and investment regimes determine the extent of economic integration, competition rules affect economic efficiency, intellectual property rights matter for innovation, and environmental and labor rules contribute to environmental and social outcomes. This Handbook provides the tools and data needed to analyze these new dimensions of integration and to assess the content and consequences of DTAs. The Handbook and the accompanying database are the result of collaboration between experts in different policy areas from academia and other international organizations, including the International Trade Centre (ITC), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and World Trade Organization (WTO).

The signing of the Association Agreement and DCFTA between Ukraine and the European Union in 2014 was an act of strategic, geopolitical significance in the history of Ukraine. Emblematic of a struggle to replace the Yanukovich regime at home and to resist attempts by Russia to deny Ukraine its European choice, the Association Agreement is a defiant statement of the country s choice to become a democratic, independent state. The purpose of this Handbook is to make the legal content of the Association Agreement clearly comprehensible. It covers all the significant political and economic chapters of the Agreement, and in each case explains the meaning of the commitments made by Ukraine and the challenges posed by their implementation. A unique reference source for this historic act, this Handbook is intended for professional readers, namely officials, parliamentarians, diplomats, business leaders, lawyers, consultants, think tanks, civil society organisations, university teachers, trainers, students and journalists. The work has been carried out by two teams of researchers from leading independent think tanks, CEPS in Brussels and the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (IER) in Kyiv, with the support of the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida). It is one of a trilogy of Handbooks, with the other two volumes examining similar Association Agreements made by the EU with Georgia and Moldova."