Why Ukraine has fallen behind Moldova on its path to EU and where exactly it has failed

The European Commission assesses progress across 33 chapters covering different policy areas, from social policy to climate action, grouped into six clusters. The assessment takes into account how much closer Ukraine’s legislative framework has moved to EU law over the past year.

For each of the 33 chapters, the European Commission assigns two scores: one for the current level of alignment and another for progress on reforms. The alignment score ranges from one to five, while the progress score ranges from zero to four.

Read more about whether Ukraine has made progress over the past year, which reforms have slowed down and what needs to be done in the article by Yuliia Shaipova of Civitta and EasyBusiness: A pass mark with the lowest possible score: how the European Commission has exposed a serious problem on Ukraine’s path to the EU.

For Ukraine, the past year could have been better in terms of the pace of reforms across many areas.

In the areas of greatest concern to Kyiv – the rule of law, anti-corruption and law enforcement reform – progress was rated at 2 out of 4. This is the same score as last year. It is neither a failure nor a breakthrough.

Overall, we received a rating of "limited progress" in nine chapters, the lowest possible score for the pace of reforms. Last year, we received this lowest rating in only five chapters. The pace of reforms has slowed in at least eight areas.

But there is good news, too.

Although Brussels confirmed a slowdown in reforms in eight chapters, it also noted greater progress in six. These include public procurement, the free movement of goods (thanks in no small part to two laws adopted by the Verkhovna Rada to bring Ukraine closer to what is known as the "industrial visa-free regime"), as well as financial services, the media, energy and security policy.

As for the overall level of alignment with EU standards, there has undoubtedly been progress.

Ukraine’s overall readiness for EU membership across all chapters currently stands at 2.5, up from 2.36 in 2025 and 2.27 in 2023. In other words, progress is being made. This is precisely what Ukrainian officials are now emphasising: that we are continuing to move forward and that there has been no regression.

But this is hardly something to be proud of.

For progress to stop altogether, reforms would have to be reversed. It is rather like downloading a programme onto a computer. Ideally, the download progress cannot go backwards: from one year to the next, it can only increase or get stuck.

So, for us, the issue is entirely about the pace of progress. And few would argue that it is fast enough. We have now slowed the pace of change even further – and fallen behind other EU candidate countries.

Last year, Ukraine dropped out of the top three among candidate countries. We are now fourth out of nine in terms of the pace of progress, behind Montenegro, Albania and Moldova. In terms of overall readiness, we rank sixth, behind the same three countries, as well as North Macedonia and Serbia.

What is particularly important is that Ukraine is now significantly behind Moldova both in its level of readiness for EU membership and in its progress – in other words, the pace at which it is moving forward.

The slight lead Moldova gained over Ukraine in 2025 is now, quite predictably, turning into a significant gap.

The first and most important problem is the overall deadlock in parliament.

The Verkhovna Rada has been unable to pass the necessary legislation for months.

The second problem is that EU integration reforms are either politically painful or rather "boring". They often affect the interests of multiple groups and do not necessarily produce immediate results that politicians can boast about.

The third is, of course, the war and the enormous number of challenges facing the entire state apparatus.