On 7 February, Kyiv hosted the Forum “Ukraine’s Accession to the EU: Shaping the Transformation Agenda”, which brought together a wide range of representatives of public authorities, the European Union and the expert community. The event discussed Ukraine’s transformation plan in the areas of rule of law and public administration – roadmaps that will become a key benchmark in the coming years to help Ukraine meet EU membership criteria – as well as a roadmap for the functioning of democratic institutions.

“I would like to thank both the Member States and the European Commission. More than 1,000 experts from European institutions are now involved in the negotiation process with Ukraine. And of course, we will discuss with them the developments on roadmaps that we are presenting to you today. European integration is a nationwide process. It involves all branches of government, civil society, and the entire country. This is a challenging task, and its difficulty lies in the fact that virtually everything depends on us. I am convinced that despite the complexity of involving a large number of stakeholders and the constant workload, certain difficulties that may arise in the process, we will go through this path together,” said Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and Minister of Justice of Ukraine, in her opening remarks to the conference participants.

Commenting on the future schedule of the negotiation process, the Deputy Prime Minister noted that the approval of the 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 first Cluster, and in June we will be ready to open the next ones,” she added.

“We clearly understand that the process of European integration is enormous in scope and will require maximum concentration of all democratic institutions, including reform of many processes in the Parliament. That is why, together with my colleagues, we proposed a draft law, the so-called ‘fast track’ for European integration laws. We are currently considering this draft law, and I think it has the potential to be adopted. It will greatly simplify the passage of many European integration bills, allowing them to be adopted in one reading. In addition, we have substantially reformed the structure of the Committees and set up a subcommittee in each of them to deal with European integration issues. This is very important, because we have many clusters and areas, and we need people in the Committees who will professionally deal with each of the sections,” said Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk.

As part of the event, EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos addressed the participants online. The Commissioner stated that, along with the team in Brussels and the EU Delegation to Ukraine, every effort is being made to ensure that the negotiation process is moving forward as efficiently as possible. According to her, she had already visited Warsaw to discuss with the Polish Presidency of the EU Council how to collaborate to get the green light for the opening of the Fundamentals cluster. She emphasised the importance of having clear roadmaps when moving to the stage of setting the initial benchmarks for the first cluster.

As a reminder, according to the negotiating framework approved by the EU, roadmaps on the rule of law and public administration are necessary for the opening of the first cluster of the negotiation process.

During the conference, Deputy Minister of Justice for European Integration Liudmyla Sugak presented the strategic priorities of the roadmaps, summarising months of work within the framework of working negotiating groups, consultations with civil society and several rounds of discussions with representatives of the European Commission.

For example, the Rule of Law Roadmap identifies key steps in the areas of the judiciary, anti-corruption, human rights and security. The roadmaps are based on the issues that were the focus of bilateral meetings between Ukraine and the EU as part of the screening of Ukrainian legislation. They also take into account the recommendations set out in the EU’s 2024 Enlargement Package for Ukraine. The roadmaps are synchronised with Ukraine’s international commitments and other strategic documents.

In particular, the roadmap covers the improvement of the legal, policy and institutional framework for the fight against organised crime; strengthening inter-agency cooperation; enhancing anti-corruption mechanisms; cooperation with EU Member States and EU agencies in the fields of justice and home affairs; ensuring sound investigative, prosecutorial and sentencing practices in all areas of serious and organised crime, as well as money laundering, including parallel financial investigations and asset confiscation.