Why obstacles are emerging on Ukraine's path to EU and what the consequences could be
Three developments have highlighted a lack of political will and strategic vision among various actors involved in Ukraine’s path towards EU membership.
What are these obstacles, and how serious are they? Read more in the column by Anatolii Martsynovsky, European Pravda's editor: A path full of obstacles: Ukraine’s EU membership bid is being complicated both in Brussels and in Kyiv.
Martsynovsky notes that the first development was a letter from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz proposing deeper integration of Ukraine into EU structures even before full membership. The initiative sparked mixed reactions in Kyiv – both among government officials and in expert circles.
Most reactions were critical, and sometimes openly cautious.
This was compounded by the second issue – reports that several EU member states were blocking Ukrainian imports.
"Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are blocking imports of certain types of Ukrainian agricultural products. This is a direct violation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, especially considering it was updated last year specifically to protect the agricultural interests of member states," the editor writes.
However, the picture of the difficulties surrounding Ukraine’s EU path, and the role of the various stakeholders involved, would be incomplete without the third development.
The author recalls that the Ukrainian government removed several EU-accession-related provisions from the draft Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2026–2030, which still requires parliamentary approval. In doing so, it ignored both EU requirements and Ukraine’s own commitments.
These provisions concerned reforming the procedures for appointing prosecutors, strengthening the independence of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, and introducing open competitions for the heads of the State Bureau of Investigation and the National Police.
"It is obvious that refusing to implement EU requirements makes accession impossible in principle," Anatolii Martsynovsky concludes.
All three of these developments occurred almost simultaneously within a very narrow ten-day time frame. Yet together, they provide a revealing snapshot of the broader accession process.