President at the meeting with leaders of factions on the eve of ratification: Association Agreement is de-facto program of reforms in Ukraine
15.09.2014 20:56 | Press office of President
Official Website of President of Ukraine
15.09.2014 18:01
Press office of President
At the meeting with leaders of deputy factions and groups of the Verkhovna Rada, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko expressed gratitude for “firm and principled position” regarding ratification of the Association Agreement scheduled for September 16.
“Today and tomorrow are historical days for Ukraine. I think that de-facto it is the program of reforms in our country,” the President noted.
Recalling that long ago it “has been an extremely ambitious pilot project”, the Head of State expressed gratefulness to everyone involved in its elaboration.
The President stressed that the procedure of ratification would begin synchronously: as planned, in the Verkhovna Rada – at 13:00 EEST, in the European Parliament – at 11:00 CET. The European Parliament carried out preparations to ratification under special shortened procedure. “Issues that required 3-4 months of hard and painstaking work in the European Parliament have been elaborated in an extremely short period of time – 2 weeks,” Petro Poroshenko informed.
The President emphasized that the Agreement would be ratified in full volume. “No dot, no comma, no word will be changed in the Agreement signed and initialed by me on June 27. The implementation of the Agreement will be carried out from the first minute,” the Head of State said.
According to Petro Poroshenko, implementation of the Agreement provides for the rule of law, freedom of speech, resolute anti-corruption measures and reforms, visa-free regime, investment climate issue, protection of individual rights and property rights.
At the same time the President noted: “Due to the brilliant efforts of Ukrainian diplomats, we managed to obtain the right for Ukraine to protect its market through respective rates of duty for goods that we import, protect the national producer, national budget and currency rate, to prevent currency outflow in conditions of war. This right is fully in the hands of Ukraine”.