- Ukraine meets the conditions related to media law and the judiciary
- EU Commission wants to highlight Ukraine’s progress
- The road to EU accession will take years, peace is needed
BRUSSELS, June 19 (Portal) – A European Union report will say this week that Ukraine has met two of seven conditions for opening accession talks, two EU sources said Invasion.
In a highly symbolic move, the EU gave Ukraine official candidate status a year ago – four months after Russia, Kiev’s Soviet-era overlord, attacked the country in its efforts to integrate with the West.
But the EU set seven conditions – including judicial reform and curbing endemic corruption – in order to start accession talks. Ukraine has requested the start of talks this year.
The report by the European Commission’s Executive Board is a milestone in that process that supporters of Ukraine’s bid for quick EU accession will hopefully culminate in a decision by the Union’s 27 member countries in December to start talks with Kiev.
Two senior EU officials briefed on the undisclosed report said Ukraine has now met two of the criteria. One of the officials said these concern judicial reform and media law, adding that the focus of the report is on the positive aspects.
“There is progress. The report will be moderately positive,” said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It’s not about glossing over reality, it’s about recognizing progress, such as prominent anti-corruption cases.”
Ukraine has followed several cases of high-profile corruption in recent months, including the jailing of the head of its Supreme Court over an alleged $2.7 million bribe.
Other criteria include increased anti-corruption efforts, reforms to Ukraine’s Constitutional Court and law enforcement, measures to combat money laundering, and laws to curb oligarchs and protect the rights of national minorities.
GLASS HALF FULL
A third source, also an EU official familiar with the bloc’s rule of law recommendations to Ukraine, added:
“As for reforms, if the glass were half full, we would never take a negative tone towards Ukraine at the moment. Some progress has been made on judicial reforms, although important reforms remain to be implemented. Not everything is satisfactory.”
The official pointed out that Ukraine had appointed new heads of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau as needed, despite its 2022 Anti-Oligarch Law, among other things, being deemed inadequate.
The report – intended as a preliminary update ahead of a more formal assessment in October – will be sent to the EU’s 27 national envoys in the center of the bloc, Brussels, on Wednesday and then to a meeting of European ministers in Stockholm on Thursday.
The 27 member countries have the final say on whether and when accession talks with Kiev will begin.
To qualify, Ukraine would have to adapt its laws to many extensive EU standards, ranging from climate to labor law. In practice, Ukraine’s road to membership will certainly take years, and few believe the country can join while at war with Russia.
Ukraine’s neighbors on the EU’s eastern flank, Poland and the Baltic states, are generally in favor of a fast track for Kiev, while western, older member states such as France, Germany and the Netherlands are more cool to the idea.
Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Edited by Mark Heinrich
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