After years of delay, the European Union has formally approved the Ukraine Association agreement in Kiev. On behalf of the EU, Donald Tusk and Jean Claude Juncker handed Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko a symbolic letter stating the EU had completed ratification of a political and trade pact. The deal will come into effect on September 1st.

The EU Commission president Jean Claude Juncker used the meeting to encourage the government to do more to tackle corruption and to set up an anti-corruption chamber within its judicial system. But apart from internal reforms, the conflict in the east and the peace process with Russia was also on the agenda. Petro Poroschenko welcomed a recent EU decision to rollover economic sanctions against Russia for another six months.