A new step to the European Integration. The Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine

Diploma Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Economics - International Economic Relations, grade: 1,3, University of Leipzig, language: English, abstract: The Association Agreement, which was signed between the European Union and Ukraine in 2014, opened a big discussion about new challenges in Europe. Many European countries signed similar Agreements and became very quickly therafter full members of the EU. Nowadays there are a lot of opinions and myths about what exactly the Ukrainian Association is, and, in general, where it should bring Ukraine and Europe. This research paper explores the objectives pursued by the EU and Ukraine by the time they signed the Agreement. It provides a full analysis and interpretation of its content and describes how Ukrainian attempt to get closer to the European Union changed the geo-political situation in Europe. This paper is important as it will cast in light the background of the present tragical events in Ukraine and will provide deeper knowledge about the situation. The main hypotheses of this work are as follows: 1. The Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU does not give any guarantees for the accession to the EU and could only be seen as the basis of a prospective future membership. 2. The access to the European integration of Ukraine in the EaP is precluded because of inflexible and 'naive' policy of the EU. The ENP has failed and needs to be reconsidered. 3. Russian permanent intervention in the policy decision-making of Ukraine slowdowns its integration towards Western Europe. The paper will be a mixture of description and 'data followed by analysis', going gradually more in depth from the negotiation process to the conclusion of the AA between Ukraine and the EU. To make the argument easy to follow, chronological analysis will be used in dealing with the interval of 2007-2015 (from the beginning of negotiations to the implementation process of the AA).