What Ukraine must do to restore EU trust after the attack on NABU
On 11 December 2025, a meeting of the EU Council took place in Lviv that was highly symbolic and very important for Ukraine. Firstly, Ukraine received its first benchmarks – the criteria that must be met in order to join the European Union. Secondly, the Ukrainian government and the European Commission, in the presence of representatives of all the member states, agreed on what needed to be done to restore trust in Ukrainian reforms.
The agreement was informally dubbed the "Kachka-Kos plan" after the officials who signed it.
Since the plan was motivated by EU member states’ lack of trust after Ukraine’s move against anti-corruption reforms, it is focused solely on anti-corruption reforms and issues relating to the rule of law.
The government set itself a deadline of 12 months to implement all 10 points of the plan. Three of those months have passed, yet almost zero progress has been made.
For more about the implementation process and its importance in the analysis by Sergiy Sydorenko, European Pravda's editor: EU trust at 9%: reform delays threaten Ukraine's path to EU membership.
Both the government and the expert community are well aware that the implementation of the Kachka-Kos plan is a critical issue in EU-Ukraine relations, including in the context of accession.
To some extent this is paradoxical in that formally this document is not part of the accession process – it stands alone. But in reality, for many EU member states the plan’s implementation is an indicator of whether one can speak of real progress by Ukraine in carrying out accession reforms.
European Commissioner Marta Kos explained this during her visit to Kyiv a month ago. In her interview with European Pravda, she emphasised that this plan encapsulates the main areas for reform being monitored by EU member states. "These are the priorities where we'll be very strict that the reforms should be done," she said, stressing that Ukraine itself set the deadline of 2026.
In the same interview, Marta Kos also said she was aware of the "civic monitoring" of the plan and is in contact with the organisations that will be conducting it. "I met some of them in Kyiv to get a better picture – to have a view through some other glasses, not just our own, those living in the Brussels bubble," she explained.
The monitoring is conducted by a coalition of eight expert organisations, led by the New Europe Center, which focus on European integration, anti-corruption issues and judicial reform. The other members of the group are Mezha, European Pravda, ANTS (the National Interests Advocacy Network), the DEJURE (Democracy, Justice, Reforms) Foundation, the Centre of Policy and Legal Reform, the Anti-Corruption Action Centre, and Transparency International Ukraine.
Three whole months of 2026 have passed – 25% of the time within which the EU expects the entire plan to be implemented. Yet the expert assessment currently gives Ukraine only 9 points out of 100 for its execution – not even 10%.
So the situation as it stands is extremely alarming. And the delays in implementing the plan are already affecting Ukraine’s relations with the EU.
It’s true that in Kyiv, they may point out that parliament is not terribly functional at the moment. But this explanation doesn’t wash.
First of all, as far as the EU is concerned, it is fundamentally irrelevant who is slowing down the implementation of changes. Either Ukraine fulfils its commitments or it does not. After all, it is not Ukraine's parliament, government, etc. that are joining the EU, but the state as a whole.
Secondly, it isn’t always parliament that’s holding things up. In many cases, laws have not even been drafted.
Thirdly, the narrative about a "non-functioning parliament" is a very dangerous one. If parliament can’t pass laws, then how can one speak about moving towards EU accession? Hundreds of laws must be passed on the road to EU membership. If Ukraine is not capable of this, how can EU accession be possible?
From the government to parliament and the president, Ukraine must do everything necessary to prove to the EU that it can carry out fundamental reforms and renew this work. Progress on the Kachka-Kos plan is the ideal instrument for this.