The political provisions of the Association Agreement between the European Union, the European Atomic Energy Community and their Member States, of the one part, and Ukraine, of the other part, were signed in Brussels on 21 March 2014, at the European Council summit. The Final Act covers the Preamble, Article 1 and Titles I, II and VII. Signatories: acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, Commission President José Manuel Barroso and the representatives of the 28 Member States. Depositary: the General Secretariat of the Council. Languages: all official EU languages and Ukrainian. OJ L 161. This was not the signature of the whole Agreement: Titles III to VI, including the deep and comprehensive free-trade area, followed on 27 June 2014, a distinct sitting.

Article 1: political association and gradual economic integration, based on common values. Title I: general principles — democracy, the rule of law, human rights, sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and a market economy. Title II: political dialogue, reform, political association and gradual convergence in foreign and security policy, at the level of principle, not an operations handbook. Title VII: the Association Council, Association Committee and Parliamentary Association Committee; unlimited duration; Article 486 on provisional application, invoked in the Final Act.

The single text of the Agreement had been initialled in 2012. At Vilnius in November 2013 the then Ukrainian government suspended signature. After the change of government in Kyiv, the European Council opened signature of the political part. The remaining titles, including Title IV on trade, are not part of the March instrument.

Provisional application of certain titles within Union competence began on 1 November 2014; Title IV on 1 January 2016. Full entry into force: 1 September 2017, after ratification by all signatories. It replaces, as the legal basis, the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement.

The Final Act confirms that the titles not signed in March, together with the rest, constitute a single instrument and that the date for signing them would be set through diplomatic channels. That date was 27 June 2014, with President Petro Poroshenko.

Cover: the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels, seat of the European Council; the Final Act records only Brussels, not the hall. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement; Final Act of the Summit between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Ukraine, of the other part, as regards the Association Agreement.