European Commission urges Ukraine not to backtrack on anti-corruption reforms

The European Commission has stressed that Ukraine must refrain from any steps that could undermine the progress already achieved in combating corruption.

The Commission noted that corruption remains a serious problem for candidate countries and emphasised that they must prioritise tackling it.

In the case of Ukraine, the European Commission underscored that developments like those that occurred in the anti-corruption sector in July must not be repeated.

"Legislative amendments in Ukraine risked weakening specialised anti-corruption institutions but were swiftly reversed. Any action that weakens or reverses strong anti-corruption reforms must be avoided," the report reads.

The annual enlargement report prepared by the European Commission gives an overall positive assessment of Ukraine's reform progress.

Taras Kachka, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, described the EU enlargement report as the best in three years.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine expects "EU's decisive action to overcome all artificial obstacles for a strong and united Europe".