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This paper analyses the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement (AA). It argues that this new legal framework, which has the objective to establish a unique form of political association and economic integration, is characterised by three specific features: comprehensiveness, complexity and conditionality. After a brief background of the EU-Ukraine relations, the following aspects are scrutinised: legal basis and objectives, institutional framework and mechanisms of enhanced conditionality and legislative approximation. In addition, constitutional challenges for the effective implementation of the EU-Ukraine AA are discussed. Based upon a comparison with other EU external agreements, it is demonstrated that the AA is an innovative legal instrument providing for a new type of integration without membership.

This chapter will analyse the legal consequences of the outcome of the Dutch referendum of 6 April 2016 concerning the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. The result of the referendum raised the question whether a single Member State can 'veto' the entry into force of a bilateral association agreement. Due to the unprecedented nature of this situation and the fact that the EU Treaties do no give a clear answer to this question, many issues related to the non-ratification of mixed agreements remain unclear. Therefore, after briefly analysing the 'mixed' nature of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement and its current legal status, the legal consequences of the Dutch 'tegen' (against) are explored, focussing on the provisional application of the agreement. Finally, the solution of the Dutch government to deal with the outcome of the referendum, and some alternatives, are discussed.

The position of an independent Scotland within the European Union (EU) has recently been a subject of considerable debate. The European Commission has argued that any newly independent state formed from the territory of an existing Member State would require an Accession Treaty. This article critiques that official position and distinguishes between a set of claims that could be made on behalf of an independent Scottish state, and a set of claims that could be made on behalf of the citizens of an independent Scottish state vis-à-vis the EU. It argues that the general principles of the EU Treaties ought to govern how Scotland is treated, and that a new Accession Treaty is not necessary. Furthermore, notwithstanding the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in the area of EU citizenship, we conclude that EU citizenship itself is not sufficient to guarantee or generate membership of the EU.