European Commission Recommends Commencing Talks on Ukraine's EU Accession

The European Commission has recommended commencing negotiations with Ukraine regarding its accession to the European Union. This was announced by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. She emphasized that today's decision is historic.

Von der Leyen noted that Ukraine continues to combat Russian aggression while simultaneously implementing crucial reforms within its country, even amidst an ongoing conflict. Her recent research during a visit to Kyiv confirmed that Ukraine has already made significant progress, having completed approximately 90% of the necessary steps for further integration into the European Union. This progress includes reforms in the judicial system, anti-corruption measures, and the de-oligarchization of the country.

"The most significant progress has been achieved in constitutional reform, judicial reform, the selection of members for the High Council of Justice, anti-corruption efforts, combating money laundering, and important measures to limit the influence of oligarchs on public life. A new media law has been passed, and there is progress on national minority issues. The remaining reforms are being executed, and this is positive. Based on this, we recommend initiating negotiations for Ukraine's EU accession. We also recommend defining the framework for these negotiations while continuing Ukraine's reforms in 2024," Ursula von der Leyen stated during the briefing.

The European Commission's report also mentions that despite Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022 and its brutal aggressive war, Ukraine continues to progress through democratic and rule of law reforms. Granting candidate status to Ukraine in June 2022 further accelerated the reform process.

The Commission also recommends that the EU Council adopt a negotiation framework after Ukraine:

• Passes the government-proposed law to increase the staff of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine.
• Removes provisions from the anti-corruption law that limit the powers of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) to review assets that have already undergone the verification process, as well as restrictions on NAPC's authority to examine the property acquired by declarants before entering public service, without compromising national security during wartime.
• Enacts a law regulating lobbying in line with European standards as part of the anti-oligarchic action plan.
• Adopts a law related to the remaining recommendations of the Venice Commission from June 2023 and October 2023, linked to the Law on National Minorities, while considering Venice Commission recommendations related to laws on state language, media, and education.

As a reminder, Ukraine obtained candidate country status for EU accession in 2022. At that time, the European Commission provided Ukraine with an action plan to be completed before the start of accession negotiations. The initiation of accession negotiations is expected in December 2023.