On 13 November, the first meeting of the Interagency Working Group (IWG) on ensuring the negotiation process on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union and the adaptation of Ukrainian legislation to EU law was held, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and Minister of Justice of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna. The meeting was attended by the heads of 36 working (negotiating) groups – deputy ministers and deputy heads of agencies.

Opening the meeting, Olha Stefanishyna stressed that this week Ukraine had completed bilateral meetings with the European Commission on Cluster 1 – Fundamentals, and was actively preparing for the screening under Cluster 2 – Internal Market, with the relevant meetings to begin next week.

The functioning and tasks of the working (negotiating) groups were also discussed. The Deputy Prime Minister stressed the importance of holding constituent meetings of each group in the near future, in order for the group chairpersons to develop their work plans for 2025 and submit them to her as the chief negotiator.

“We have already approved the personal composition of all working negotiating groups, which include representatives of government agencies, broad representation from the Parliament, representatives of the public and business associations. We have chief negotiators for each of the areas, who, in their working groups, will develop positions in preparation for the screening and, of course, for the negotiations on each of the relevant sections when they begin. The purpose of today’s meeting is therefore to set priorities for the next stages, to launch the work of each group and to establish the timetable for our interaction,” Olha Stefanishyna said.

The meeting participants discussed in detail the state of preparation of draft roadmaps for the negotiated sections: Rule of Law, Public Administration Reform, and Functioning of Democratic Institutions. Olha Stefanishyna thanked First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Korniyenko for the joint work in this area, stressing the need to finalise the vision of the Ukrainian side by the end of the month for further consultations with the European Commission.

“In six weeks’ time, the European Commission’s report on the results of the screening of Cluster 1 will be published, which will allow the opening of negotiations on this cluster. We need to have roadmaps in place by then. I ask you to intensify your work in the relevant negotiating groups so that they can be presented to the IWG and sent to the European Commission as soon as possible,” she stressed.

A separate part of the meeting was the discussion of the EU’s Ukraine 2024 Enlargement Package Report. In order to effectively plan the implementation of the European Commission’s recommendations, the Government Office for Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration has already started collecting proposals from ministries and other authorities. The Deputy Prime Minister urged the group heads to pay special attention to this issue in order to prepare a quality action plan, which is important for the prompt approval of the legislative work plan.

“In fact, the deeper we dive into the negotiation process, the tougher the reports will be, because they are no longer based on general assessments, but on the actual results of the ongoing negotiation process. Accordingly, the assessment and the report will depend on the results of your work on the negotiation chapters,” said Olha Stefanishyna.

Following the meeting, the IWG approved the regulations of the working groups to provide for the planning of their work and the format of interaction. The Deputy Prime Minister called on all the heads of the working groups to hold their first constituent meetings within a month.

Background

On 27 August 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted a resolution establishing the Interagency Working Group to support the negotiation process on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union and the adaptation of Ukrainian legislation to EU law, as well as 36 working (negotiating) groups to prepare Ukraine’s negotiating positions in accordance with 33 negotiating chapters and 3 areas of the EU negotiating framework.

The IWG is a temporary advisory body of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Its purpose is to facilitate effective coordination of the negotiation process.