Why anti-corruption policy could slow Ukraine's path to EU

Ukraine’s authorities are entering into a new conflict with Europe in terms of the fight against corruption. 

This is about the updated Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2026-2030, which Ukraine is required to adopt as one of its EU accession commitments. In particular, the government proposes to remove key provisions from the Strategy concerning the independence of the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) and competitive selection procedures for top-level positions.

These proposals contradict the government’s own commitments as set out in the Kachka-Kos plan [the 10 key reform priorities outlined in the Joint Statement by EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos and Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Taras Kachka]. They also contradict the EU’s benchmarks – a list of the criteria Ukraine must meet on its path towards accession.

Read more in the article by European Pravda editors Anatoli Martsynovsky and Sergiy Sydorenko: Anti-corruption rollback? Ukraine revises its five-year strategy, cutting some EU commitments.

In July 2025, the authorities launched an open attack on the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), triggering protests in Ukraine and causing enormous problems in Kyiv’s relations with its international partners. The resulting lack of trust in the sincerity of the Ukrainian authorities’ anti-corruption rhetoric has still not faded, and it may flare up again now with renewed force.

To address the problem of the lack of trust in Ukraine, Brussels proposed a creative solution – the approval of the Kachka-Kos plan.

The plan comprises 10 points that Kyiv has promised to implement by the end of 2026, including commitments to enhance NABU and SAPO’s independence and expand their jurisdiction to cover "all high-risk positions based on an existing independent assessment".

Another key document is the EU benchmarks – the indicators that EU member states use to evaluate whether Ukraine is fulfilling the requirements for EU accession. These benchmarks also cover the institutional strengthening of the anti-corruption bodies.

They specifically state that NABU and SAPO must be granted the necessary powers to initiate criminal proceedings against Members of Parliament without prior approval from the Prosecutor General (Benchmark IBM 23.6.3).

Thus, the government has refused to implement a mandatory criterion for EU accession.

The government’s draft law on Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2026–2030, submitted to Ukrainian parliament on 15 May, does not contain this provision.

Also deleted is any reference to competitive selection procedures for appointing the heads of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and the National Police.

The strategy entirely removes the state’s acknowledgment of the politicised nature of the appointment and dismissal process for the Prosecutor General, as well as the proposed solutions to address this problem.

The government’s amendments to the Anti-Corruption Strategy suggest that it has developed a phobia of competitive selection procedures for key leadership positions.

Finally, the section dealing with corruption problems in the tax system has undergone dramatic revision. The government has removed all references to the problem of "manual control" (overriding the usual procedures) in ordering arbitrary tax inspections.

So too does the question of whether parliament will have the courage to preserve Ukraine’s European course and adopt a version of the strategy that complies with EU requirements. This refers to the draft Anti-Corruption Strategy developed by the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) with the participation of experts, which was registered in parliament earlier, on 13 May, by Anastasia Radina (Servant of the People), head of the parliamentary anti-corruption committee.

The question of why the government made these changes remains open.

Because in the end, these reforms will still have to be implemented if Ukraine wants to stay on its European trajectory.