Poroshenko, Rutte coordinate efforts to speed up EU-Ukraine Association Agreement ratification

"The two officials have coordinated efforts to speed up the ratification," Poroshenko’s press service reported on Friday. As we have reported, the Netherlands is the last of the 28 EU member countries left to ratify the EU-Ukraine deal. It held an advisory referendum in April that voted against the ratification. The agreement that includes free trade and closer political ties must be ratified by each member of the Union, to enter into full force. The free trade was enforced on January 1st. The two leaders also discussed the preliminary results of the inquiry by the Joint Investigation Team into the MH17 flight crash. "Poroshenko and Rutte have stressed the importance of completing the investigation and bringing the perpetrators to justice. In this context, the Dutch prime minister said that the Russian ambassador had been called to the Foreign Ministry of the Netherlands," the report said. For his part, Poroshenko spoke about the need to preserve unity among the EU countries for the continuation of sanction pressure on Russia until the full restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity. In turn, Rutte noted the importance of prompt provision of the visa-free regime to Ukrainians.