Ukraine aims not only to start accession negotiations, but also to open all the negotiation clusters by the end of 2025.
No other country has ever launched the EU accession process this quickly in its current form, but Ukraine intends to make it a reality. This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna at a conference titled Ukraine’s Accession to the EU: Shaping the Transformation Agenda, where Stefanishyna also outlined the plan to achieve this record pace.
Ukrainian officials have made ambitious promises before, so this statement in itself is not a groundbreaking one. What is far more significant is that the European Commission has confirmed the same intention. Brussels bureaucrats do not make such assumptions unless there is a solid basis for doing so.
Nevertheless, Brussels has emphasised that Ukraine needs to meet certain conditions, some of which are politically sensitive.
Specifically, the EU expects Kyiv to ease restrictions under martial law, strengthen opposition rights, and take Hungary’s demands into account. And of course, the EU continues to stress the importance of reform.
Perhaps the best news from the conference was the statement from Ukraine’s parliamentary leadership about their willingness to fulfil the EU’s requirements. Many rank-and-file MPs remain sceptical, though. Strengthening opposition rights is expected to be one of the most challenging issues, as opposition MPs doubt that the government is genuinely ready to take meaningful steps in this direction.
Nonetheless, there were some positive signals regarding compliance with EU demands, including from First Deputy Speaker Oleksandr Korniienko.
Parliamentarians, government officials, experts and Western diplomats all took part in the discussions at Friday’s conference. European Pravda’s editor closely followed the debates both during and around the event.
Source: Ukrainska Pravda
