This comparative overview of Association Agreements implementation in Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine was prepared in order to facilitate the search for common interests of the three countries in cooperation and peer-to-peer learning. It presents the key information to apprehend and compare the content of the three Associated Agreements (AAs); progress in implementation of their main provisions; domestic political contexts, governmental and parliamentary mechanisms of their implementation, and the institutions for civil society participation; as well as the key data on relationship between the EU and the three countries in security and in trade.
This comparative analysis shows important nuances. In general, AA with Ukraine provides for deeper integration, including by offering the perspective of internal market treatment in a number of sectors as well as often more detailed provisions in the Agreement. Only in the Ukrainian government, EU issues are coordinated by a dedicated Vice-Prime-Minister and not by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Georgian and Ukrainian parliaments have separate committees on European integration, while in the Moldovan parliament a single committee covers both EU and foreign policy issues. The role of respective parliamentary committees in law-making varies substantially, but in all three cases, their opinions on legal drafts are not binding. Compliance check tables are required for legal drafts submission by MPs in Georgia and Moldova, but not in Ukraine (though the majority of draft laws in the Ukrainian parliament are submitted by MPs) which gets the opinion from the Office for European and Euro-Atlantic integration. There are also important nuances in the composition of the bilateral civil society platforms established under the AAs, both from the countries and from the EU side. All three countries are working with the EU on updating the Annexes to As, with Ukraine being the most active.
This publication was prepared by Ivane Chkhikvadze, lulian Groza and Leonid Litra. Inputs were also made by Veronika Movchan. The initial template was developed by the Civic Synergy Project Team et
