Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and Minister of Justice of Ukraine, during a panel discussion at the forum “Ukraine’s Accession to the EU: Shaping the Transformation Agenda”, said that Ukraine expected to open all negotiating clusters with the European Union by the end of this year.

Commenting on the future schedule of the negotiation process, the Deputy Prime Minister noted that the approval of roadmaps in the areas of rule of law and public administration reform was a condition for the opening of negotiations on Cluster 1, Fundamentals. The Roadmap for the Functioning of Democratic Institutions is important to ensure that EU member states support the opening of negotiations with Ukraine.

“We hope that in the coming weeks Ukraine will provide these roadmaps, so that in April we will be able to open negotiations on the Cluster 1, and in June we will be ready to open the next ones,” she said.

According to Olha Stefanishyna, Cluster 1 is key for Ukraine, as it structures and unites the state around the most important areas in which the country will move towards the EU in the context of public administration, functioning of democratic institutions, and anti-corruption policy.

“The second Cluster, Internal Market, which is still being screened, is also key. While the first Cluster is the soul of our future membership, the Internal Market is its body,” the Deputy Prime Minister added.

She also noted that the EU accession negotiations had brought together a wide range of participants: MPs and representatives of the Verkhovna Rada staff, NGOs, representatives of business associations and think tanks.

Commenting on the challenges facing the negotiations, in particular in the context of the opening of the first negotiating cluster, the Deputy Prime Minister stressed the importance of ongoing discussions with the Parliament, in particular on the adoption of legislation defined within the framework of Ukraine’s European integration path.

“The Lozovyi amendments are one of the most controversial cases in the Parliament. This is a very important discussion, and I am ready for it to take longer than we would like, but the decision will be balanced,” Olha Stefanishyna said.

She also said that the Government had submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a draft law agreed with the European Commission that would relaunch ARMA based on European experience.

The discussion was moderated by Serhiy Sydorenko, editor and co-founder of the European Pravda publication.

The event was organised by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine in partnership with the project “Strengthening the Ukrainian EU Adjustment Process in the Area of the Rule of Law” (3*E4U), implemented on behalf of the German Federal Foreign Office by Deutsche Gesellschaft für International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, and the EU-funded Pravo-Justice Project, implemented by Expertise France.