The situation at the border has returned to normal, but Gunnar Wiegand, the EU`s diplomat in charge of relations with the EU`s eastern neighbours, told the European Parliament on Wednesday that the collision would be “probably a first warning shot if and if Ukraine approaches the signing of an association agreement” at the Vilnius summit. In the following months, Russia continued to push to terminate the Association Agreement or, at the very least, its trade component, the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), which Russia (wrongly) deemed detrimental to its interests, arguing that duty-free imports from the EU to Ukraine could easily “infiltrate” into Russia. Despite the European Commission`s efforts to avoid a trade conflict through a one-year postponement and trilateral negotiations, the DCFTA finally entered into force on 1 January 2016 in force. Russia responded by unilaterally imposing its own bilateral free trade agreement with Ukraine, which had been in force since the dissolution of the USSR at the end of 1991. [17] Carnegie Europe, Russia and Germany website: From alienated partners to good neighbours: carnegie.ru/2018/06/06/russia-and-germany-from-estranged-partners-to-good-neighbors-pub-76540 For the purposes of this Agreement, an Economic Integration Agreement is an agreement consistent with the principles set out in Article V of the General Agreement on Trade in Services. For every aspect of this agreement that concerns areas other than services activities, an economic integration agreement is an agreement in accordance with the principles set out in Article XXIV of the GATT on the establishment of free trade areas or customs unions. Article 12 of Title III on the movement of goods regulates the question of transit. In the view of the Contracting Parties, Article 12 concerns only the free transit of goods. This is in line with the usual GATT practice. The issue of transit may be addressed in future negotiations on transport agreements referred to in Article 43.
This Agreement shall not affect the rights guaranteed to them by agreements guaranteed to them by agreements between one or more Member States, on the one hand, and Russia, on the other, except in areas falling within the competence of the Community and without prejudice to the obligations of the Member States under this Agreement in areas within their competence. . . .