EU outlines Ukraine accession criteria: focus on anti-corruption and rule of law
The European Union has handed over key documents to Ukraine detailing EU accession conditions and the criteria for assessing the country’s readiness. As reported by European Pravda, which published the document, these requirements place significant emphasis on combating corruption, strengthening the independence of anti-corruption bodies, and upholding the rule of law and human rights.
Photo from Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Instagram pageThe document emphasized the country’s significant progress in combating and preventing corruption while simultaneously defining several specific requirements.
In particular, the EU requires the implementation of a strategic and legislative framework for anti-corruption, including the phased alignment of Ukrainian legislation with EU law and recommendations from international organizations such as Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). Ukraine must ensure effective coordination, budget planning, monitoring, and evaluation of the anti-corruption strategy and action plan.
The document also defines the need to strengthen the independence and effectiveness of specialized anti-corruption bodies, expand the jurisdiction of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) to all high-risk government positions, and grant the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) the authority to initiate criminal proceedings against members of parliament without prior approval from the Prosecutor General.
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In the area of corruption prevention, Ukraine must develop and implement legal and policy frameworks for electronic declarations, whistleblower protection, the resolution of conflicts of interest, lobbying, and the funding of political parties and election campaigns, and ensure effective, proportionate, and dissuasive sanctions for violations.
Under the traditional EU accession scheme, a candidate state must incorporate all EU legal norms into its domestic law. In practice, the EU monitors the implementation of work based on a limited list of criteria known as interim benchmarks. For key areas such as the rule of law, the fight against corruption, and human rights, interim benchmarks are also applied. This allows the EU, if necessary, to define additional requirements at the final stage if the development of the situation in justice requires further changes.
European Pravda notes that even with Ukraine’s possible accelerated accession to the EU — likely even in 2027 — Ukraine will not be able to avoid fulfilling the criteria. The EU can only postpone some of the requirements, turning them from preconditions into postconditions, but the country will not be able to refuse to implement them. The publication’s sources participating in the negotiations report that Ukraine must fulfill a number of requirements under the “Fundamentals” cluster — in the areas of the rule of law, anti-corruption, and human rights — even before accession, even under the fastest scenario.
Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has amended the composition of the Ukrainian delegation for negotiations with the European Union on Ukraine’s EU accession agreement and has appointed Taras Kachka, Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, as the chief negotiator.
To provide background, the results of an Info Sapiens survey commissioned by the New Europe Center, which examined public attitudes toward foreign policy, security, and European integration, indicate that Ukrainians link the success of European integration primarily to internal changes in the country. They cite the fight against corruption as the most important indicator — 19.2% of respondents answered this way. This is followed by an increase in the standard of living (12%) and adherence to the principle of the rule of law (8.4%).
