Today, the course for integration with the European Union is enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine, and the full implementation of the Association Agreement is one of the tasks defined by the National Security Strategy. Why and what prospects does the implementation of the Agreement open for us? Integration with the European Union is a conscious choice of citizens and a key requirement of the Dignity Revolution of 2013-2014. The full name of the document is the Association Agreement between Ukraine, on the one hand, and the European Union, the European Atomic Energy Community and their Member States, on the other. The volume of the document is 486 articles with 44 annexes, protocols and a joint declaration, and the official text has about 2000 pages. No wonder Herman van Rompey (President of the European Council 2010-2014) called our agreement “one of the most detailed association agreements ever concluded by the European Union”. The Agreement aims at the political association and economic integration of Ukraine with the European Union, which in turn depend on progress in the implementation of this Agreement, as well as on Ukraine's achievements in ensuring respect for common values and progress in rapprochement with the EU in the political, economic and legal spheres. The signing of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU took place in two stages. On March 21, 2014, during the extraordinary Ukraine-EU summit, the political part of the Agreement and the Final Act of the Summit were signed. In particular, the Preamble, Article 1, Chapters I “General Principles”, II “Political Dialogue and Reforms, Political Association, Cooperation and Convergence in the Field of Foreign and Security Policy” and VII “Institutional, General and Final Provisions” of the Agreement were signed. The summit also stated that Ukraine's obligations under Article 8 of the Association Agreement with regard to the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 1998 will be fulfilled after the relevant amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine were made. On June 27, 2014, during the meeting of the Council of the European Union, an economic agreement was signed. Part of the Agreement — Sections III “Justice, Freedom and Security”, IV “Trade and Trade-Related Issues”, V “Economic and Sectoral Cooperation” and VI “Financial Cooperation and Anti-Fraud Provisions”. 16 September 2014 The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the European Parliament have simultaneously ratified the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. The Ukrainian side handed over the instruments of ratification to the Depositary and thus completed all internal procedures. Since 1 September 2017, the Association Agreement has entered into full legal force after its ratification by the parliaments of all 28 EU Member States (after the withdrawal of the UK, the Union has 27 participating countries)

If you want to know more about the Association Agreement, in particular, to find answers to questions about whether the Agreement provides for Ukraine's membership in the EU, whether it has a validity period, what the EU acquis is and many others, we suggest that you take a training course developed by the special project EdEra and the International Renaissance Foundation with the support of the EU within the framework of the project “Public synergy” at the link.

Here you can read the full text of the Agreement

If you are interested in issues of European integration and want to know about all the news, we suggest you go to the link to the European integration portal “Ukraine - Europe”

Who and how implements the Association Agreement?
In Ukraine, the issue of coordination and coordination of activities within the European integration political vector is entrusted to the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine. However, the situation has changed somewhat with the formation in 2020 of the Commission for the Coordination of the Implementation of the Association Agreement, which is headed by the Prime Minister and includes all members of the Government.

In order to implement the Association Agreement, the Government has developed and approved a national action plan.

In addition, in order to monitor the progress of the implementation of the tasks defined in the Action Plan, with the support of the EU, together with the experts of the Association4U project, the electronic tool “Pulse of the Agreement” has been developed, the review of which is open to all and is available at the link

The mission of the
Ministry of Internal Affairs is a component of the national security sector and performs its part of the tasks within the framework of the implementation of the Association Agreement. For this purpose, institutional and organizational measures were taken, in particular, by the order of the Minister of Internal Affairs of 17.05.2018 No. 421 approved the departmental plan of measures for the implementation of the Agreement (the updated plan was approved by order of 03.09.2020 No. 644). To ensure proper organization of defined tasks and sustainability of results in the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Directorate for Strategic Planning and European Integration was established. Coordination and monitoring of the implementation of the Agreement is entrusted to the European Integration Department of the Main Directorate for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration. In particular, the Ministry of Internal Affairs ensures the fulfilment of the tasks of Chapter III of the Agreement “Justice, Freedom and Security”, as well as in part of Chapter II “Political Dialogue and Reform, Political Association, Cooperation and Convergence in the Field of Foreign and Security Policy”, and certain tasks in the framework of sectoral integration, in particular in the fields of environment environment, transport, cross-border and regional cooperation. Today, communication between the state bodies of Ukraine and the relevant partners from the European Union is a continuous process. However, the largest formal and most effective platform for personal dialogue is the meetings of the bilateral bodies of the association, which take place every year. This is the Ukraine-EU Summit, the Association Council, the Association Committee and its subcommittees. In accordance with the competence of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it is involved in the organization and conduct of the Association Committee, the Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security, the Human Rights Dialogue and cluster meetings.

In 2020, the Ministry of Internal Affairs ensured the implementation of the following measures:
in order to improve coordination and monitoring of measures in the field of European integration, a Network of Contact Persons on European Integration was established, three network meetings were held, during which priority steps were identified, in particular for proper preparation for the meetings of the Association Committee associations, Association Councils, implementation of an information campaign;

The Strategy for Combating Organized Crime has been developed and approved, work is underway to develop the appropriate Action Plan for its implementation;

an Administrative Agreement has been signed with the EU Agency for the Training of Law Enforcement Officers (CEPOL);

within the framework of the approximation of national legislation to EU law, it was ensured that draft laws were developed and submitted for consideration by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine:
- “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Concerning Objects of Increased Danger”, - “On Ratification of the Memorandum of Understanding between Ukraine and the European Police Office Stosos on confidentiality and ensuring the safety of information”,
- “On amendments to the Criminal Code of Ukraine on liability for theft, appropriation, sale, falsification of documents,
identity documents, confirming the citizenship of Ukraine or special status of a person, as well as certificates of state registration of civil status acts and/or the use of knowingly forged such documents”
- “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Improving Legislation in the Field of Migration”, - “On Amendments to the Code Court of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses for Improving Migration Legislation”;

participated in the development of draft laws:
- “On Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine and the Code on Administrative Offenses to Improve the Effectiveness of Countering Cyber Attacks”, - “On Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code to Improve the Efficiency of Combating Cybercrime and Electronic Use of evidence”,
- “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine” on the Implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse
violence (the Lanzarote Convention)”

the development and submission to the Government for consideration of:
- the draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “On approval of samples of forms and technical descriptions of national and international driver's licenses, vehicle registration certificates, temporary registration cards and a sample of a car identification plate Ukraine and amendments to some resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine” (decision adopted - resolution of 16.09.2020 № 844) - draft order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “On approval of the State Concept
target program of material and technical re-equipment of the national hydrometeorological service for the period 2022 — 2024 (decision adopted — order of 04.11.2020 № 1381-r)