KIEV, Feb. 14 – The signing of a free-trade agreement with the European Union will take a lot more time than originally thought, according to Deputy Economy Minister Valeriy Piatnytsky, the chairman of the Ukrainian delegation at the talks with the EU.
"In order to sign this agreement, it must pass the domestic procedures in each country. For the EU, that means [the document] has to be translated into 27 languages and agreed by certain countries... The optimistic forecast is six months. In order to ensure that it is signed in December, the negotiation will have to end, with everything being clear, no later than in June. Frankly speaking, today we have to start reading the complete agreement. We need to say that it is finished, rather than signed. It's just impossible to ignore technical procedures, because it's not a hundred pages - it's thousands of pages," he said in an interview with Radio Liberty.
Piatnytsky also spoke about sensitive issues related to the signing of the free trade agreement.
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