Why EU is forcing reform of the bar system by Portnov what needs to change
In its latest report on enlargement, the European Commission expanded the list of priority tasks facing Ukraine in the field of justice.
For the first time since Ukraine gained candidate status, this short list included a requirement that Ukraine should "advance the reforms of the Bar" by 2026.
It is an indispensable element of the justice system and, at the same time, the only one that still operates under the old rules of 2012 and has not yet undergone reform.
Read more about the opportunity to change the least reformed part of Ukraine’s judicial system in the article by Daria Pysarenko of the NGO Future Lawyer: Why Ukraine's bar reform is now a test of EU accession and what Brussels demands change.
Ukraine needs to develop a new policy and rules for the functioning of the Bar. Without interfering with the professional independence of lawyers, but ensuring the quality, accountability of the institution, and restoring public trust in it.
The section on the Bar was included in the Roadmap for Reforms in the Field of the Rule of Law, one of the key benchmarks in Ukraine's movement towards the EU. This roadmap has been agreed with the EU. The government approved it in May 2025.
The NACP also included the Bar in the draft Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2026–2030.
The issue is no longer an internal professional discussion but has become part of the state's official European integration commitments, enshrined in strategic documents.
On 12 January 2026, a government working group was created to improve legislation on the bar.
The crisis in the bar has two dimensions – external and internal.
The external dimension manifests itself in the bar's failure to perform its constitutional functions.
The internal dimension of the crisis is related to issues of the legitimacy of decisions, the organisation of self-government, and the accountability of governing bodies to the lawyers themselves.
As a result, lawyers have a bar self-government body elected in 2012 and almost completely re-elected in 2017, which has remained unchanged for over 14 years, including the chair of the UNBA and the BCU, Lidiya Izovitova.
Back in 2012, the law "On the Bar and the Practice of Law" was introduced. It is worth recalling that at that time, laws so important to justice were drafted by Andriy Portnov.
After all, it is difficult to remember another powerful institution in Ukraine that would be run by the same people as in 2012.
But elections won't solve the problem. The entrenched system needs to be changed.
This is what the European Commission emphasises in its 2025 report: first, the legislative rules for the formation of bar self-government bodies must be changed, and only then should elections be held.
The current model, with its quotas and multi-level delegation, effectively restricts competition and allows the current leadership to concentrate control and have only loyal participants in the Bar Congress, which will elect new leaders. That is why the expert recommendations provide for the introduction of modern voting tools, in particular an online format that corresponds to the scale of the profession, which has more than 70,000 lawyers.
Reforming the electoral procedures for self-government will be a key task for the working group. After all, it is the election rules that determine the legitimacy of these bodies and, most importantly, should enable new leaders of the bar to come to power and implement changes.
Be that as it may, right now there is a chance to change the least reformed part of the Ukrainian judicial system.
And European integration gives hope that these changes will be meaningful.