15 December 2016, 12:00 GMT
BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — The EU-Ukraine Association Agreement was signed in 2014, and is required to be ratified by all the 28 member states of the European Union to enter into force. The agreement has not yet been ratified by the Netherlands, whose nationals rejected the deal in an April referendum.
"I am convinced that by the end of the day we will find a solution so that everyone can ratify the agreement," Bettel said upon arrivals to the summit.
Even though the deal has not yet entered into force, some of its options are working provisionally, in particular, an agreement on free trade between the parties.
The negotiations are currently underway between the EU member states to provide for a legally binding decision to pave the way for the ratification of the agreement by the Netherlands.
