The EU-Ukraine Association Agreement: A New Legal Instrument of Integration Without Membership?

Authors

  • Roman Petrov
  • Cuillaume Van der Loo
  • Peter Van Elsuwege

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18523/kmlpj52678.2015-1.1-19

Keywords:

European Union, Ukraine, Association Agreement, Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area, integration, legislative approximation

Abstract

This article analyses the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement (EU-Ukraine AA). It argues that this new legal framework, which has the objective to establish a unique form of political association and economic integration, is characterized by three specific features: comprehensiveness, complexity and conditionality. After a brief background of the EU-Ukraine relations, the following aspects are scrutinized: legal basis and objectives, institutional framework and mechanisms of enhanced conditionality, and legislative approximation. In addition, constitutional challenges for the effective implementation of the EU-Ukraine AA are discussed. Based upon a comparison with other EU external agreements, it is demonstrated that the EU-Ukraine AA is an innovative legal instrument providing for a new type of integration without membership.

References

  1. Gotev, Georgi. “Ukraine Ready to Sign Association Agreement during March EU Summit.” Euractiv.com, February 27, 2014. Accessed December 30, 2014. http://www.euractiv.com/europes-east/ukraine-wants-sign-association-a-news-533818.
  2. Łazowski, Adam. “Enhanced Multilateralism and Enhanced Bilateralism: Integration without Membership in the European Union.” Common Market Law Review 45.5 (2008): 1433–58.
  3. Maresceau, Marc. “Les accords d’intégration dans les relations de proximité de l’Union européenne.” In Les frontières de l’Union européenne, edited by Claude Blumann, 151–92. Bruxelles: Bruylant, 2013.
  4. Petrov, Roman. “Recent Developments in the Adaptation of Ukrainian Legislation to EU Law.” European Foreign Affairs Review 8.1 (2003): 125–41.
  5. Petrov, Roman, and Paul Kalinichenko. “The Europeanization of Third Country Judiciaries through the Application of the EU Acquis: The Cases of Russia and Ukraine.” International & Comparative Law Quarterly 60.2 (2011): 325–53.
  6. Van Elsuwege, Peter, and Guillaume Van der Loo. “Competing Paths of Regional Economic Integration in the Post-Soviet Space: Legal and Political Dilemmas for Ukraine.” Review of Central and East European Law 37 (2012): 421–47.
  7. Van der Loo, Guillaume. “The EU-Ukraine Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area: A Coherent Mechanism for Legislative Approximation?” In Legislative Approximation and Application of EU Law in the Eastern Neighbourhood of the European Union. Towards a Common Regulatory Space? edited by Peter Van Elsuwege, Roman Petrov, 63–88. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2014.

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How to Cite

Petrov, R., Van der Loo, C., & Van Elsuwege, P. (2015). The EU-Ukraine Association Agreement: A New Legal Instrument of Integration Without Membership?. Kyiv-Mohyla Law and Politics Journal, (1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.18523/kmlpj52678.2015-1.1-19

Issue

No. 1 (2015)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2016 Roman Petrov, Cuillaume Van der Loo, Peter Van Elsuwege

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