15 July, 2017
Literally, the phrase reads: "the European Union acknowledges Ukraine's European aspirations and welcomes its European choice".
Poroshenko also expressed gratitude for the EU's support in his country's conflict with Russian Federation, which annexed the Ukrainian province of Crimea in 2014 and then inflamed a separatist conflict in parts of eastern Ukraine that has claimed more than 10,000 lives.
"Corruption is one of the biggest problems of this country", European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said.
European Union association agreements are often the prelude to later membership and are meant to bring a country's political, economic and civil society norms into line with those of the bloc.
The trade preferences, expected to enter into force by September, will stay in effect for three years.
The Dutch parliament approved the EU-Ukraine association deal only this year, more than two years after it was signed, following a non-binding referendum in which most of the 32 per cent of voters who turned out oppose the pact.
The Ukrainska Pravda investigative news outlet reported that a final summit declaration had been stymied by opposition from the Netherlands - backed by some other member states - to any acknowledgment of Ukraine's "European aspirations".
As there had been no progress in the implementation of the Minsk agreements, European Union leaders gathered at the June summit in Brussels chose to prolong economic sanctions against certain sectors of the Russian economy.
At the press conference on July 13, in the follow-up of the Ukraine-EU Summit, Mr. Juncker said: "Till now the EU was requesting from Ukraine to create a special court in charge of corruption affairs".
Leaders highlighted the concrete results achieved with European Union support programmes.They stressed the importance of implementing all the policy measures attached to disbursement of the third tranche of the programme by the end of the year. They also announced the preparation of €200 million worth of priority programmes for 2017, including support to conflict-affected areas in the east of Ukraine, energy efficiency, and public finance management. "More than 100,000 holders of Ukrainian biometric passports have used their visa-free-travel right already".
