Why EU accession talks can last for decades and how Ukraine can avoid that

On 4 November, Brussels published this year’s European Commission report on the implementation of the enlargement policy – the so-called Enlargement Package.

Ukraine’s evaluation brings two pieces of news this year.

First, the pace of reforms has been assessed somewhat better than last year: Ukraine has shown good progress in 15 negotiation chapters.

Second, not a single chapter saw a drop in its overall readiness score for EU membership, and in seven chapters the rating even improved – a clearly positive trend.

Read more about the report and on what Ukraine must do to speed up its accession process in the article by political scientist Ivan Nahorniak: EU assessed not only reforms: why the 2025 enlargement report became a success for Ukraine.

In 2025, the Ukrainian government had a dual EU integration task: successfully conducting the screening (an analysis of the alignment of Ukrainian legislation with EU law within the negotiation framework) and implementing EU-related reforms.

While much remains to be done in the second area, the screening itself was carried out successfully and at a fairly high level. As a result, thanks to this active preparation, Ukraine received positive recommendations in the Report for opening three negotiation clusters.

These include the critically important Cluster 1 Fundamentals with seven chapters; Cluster 2 Internal Market, which contains nine chapters; and Cluster 6 External Relations, covering two key areas for Ukraine, integration into the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy and external trade.

If Hungary’s veto can be lifted, this would pave the way for launching negotiations on more than 50% of all chapters defined by the EU–Ukraine negotiation framework, since opening a cluster automatically opens all chapters within it.

A further positive outcome of the screening is that Ukraine has gained a clear understanding of which EU legal acts are prioritised for implementation before accession and which can be adopted later during transitional periods.

To organise this process, the government plans by the end of the year to present a National Programme for the Adoption of the EU Acquis (NPAA) – a comprehensive roadmap that will replace all existing plans and strategies in this field.

This will be a detailed, step-by-step instrument including hundreds, in some areas, thousands of measures required for the successful completion of negotiations in each chapter.

However, with the current approach to reforms, accession talks could drag on for decades – a luxury Ukraine cannot afford.

One of the top priorities should be reforming parliamentary procedures by introducing a simplified process for reviewing EU-related draft laws in Ukrainian parliament. The relevant draft law No. 13653 has been registered.

And finally, for further progress toward EU membership, it is crucial that Ukraine avoid backsliding.

The events of July 2025, when the powers of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) were curtailed, sent a negative signal to the EU, one that Kyiv only narrowly managed to neutralise. Otherwise, the consequences could have been very serious, as the rule of law and the fight against corruption will remain key criteria for the EU throughout the entire negotiation process.

Ukraine has a strong base of allies among the leadership of European institutions and EU member states.

The last thing the country should do is undermine their trust and confidence in Ukraine’s EU membership prospects.