The European Commission annually assesses candidate states regarding alignment with EU law, as well as the speed of reforms carried out. According to a document cited in the article A record EU assessment despite stalled reforms: what's behind Brussels' optimism on Ukraine, this year, a paradoxical situation arose in Ukraine. The European Commission acknowledges that reforms have significantly slowed down – yet Ukraine's readiness for accession has grown the most across all years.

Ukraine's progress over the years
Graphic: European Pravda

EC methodology shows that the level of readiness ranges from the lowest indicator of "early stage" (one in the table) to "good level of preparation" (four) or "well advanced" (five). Scores of four and five are considered sufficient for accession.

In 2026, Ukraine received fours across five of the 33 negotiating chapters (last year it was across four), with another one approaching this level. A one, i.e. the lowest score, remained across three chapters, the same as last year.

Importantly, this year's score rose across all "fundamental" chapters, which are critically important for the negotiations.

Ukraine's progress over the years
Graphic: European Pravda

In the article, European Pravda explains that this growth does not always reflect the progress of reforms carried out by the authorities.

In particular, Brussels acknowledged that regarding anti-corruption, the score rose not thanks to, but in spite of the actions of the authorities.

On the 2025 European integration rating, read last year's article: Ukraine warned but not punished: EU report assesses reforms and failures, setting the bar for Kyiv

European Pravda is also preparing a comparison with other candidate states.

Zelenskyy said in an interview with German broadcaster ZDF that he hopes the changes resulting from the Democrats taking control of both chambers of Congress next year will work in Kyiv's favour.

"We have bipartisan support, support from both parties. I am also grateful to the Republicans, but the Democrats speak very clearly in their support for Ukraine and in their commitment to providing it with assistance," the Ukrainian president said.

"They talk about renewing ties between the US and Europe, which have been somewhat lost in recent years. And that is very important to us. Without these ties, without these relations, it is very difficult to stand up to Putin," he added.

Zelenskyy said increased US assistance could influence Russian ruler Vladimir Putin and push him towards ending the war.

"If Congress now starts talking about strong financial support or military assistance in the form of weapons, as Europe is doing and demonstrating today, in my opinion that will be a positive factor that will influence Putin. And Putin will then consider whether it makes sense to continue fighting, to continue the war, if that support is growing," the president said.

Zelenskyy also expressed hope that stronger US support for Ukraine will bring negotiations closer and make a possible peace agreement more attainable.

In the US midterm congressional elections, President Donald Trump's Republican Party lost its majorities in both chambers of Congress.

Trump said he would accept the election results and expressed his readiness to work with the Democratic majority in Congress.

When asked by the European Pravda correspondent whether the European Commission intends to amend the draft common negotiating position for Cluster 5 prior to its opening, a senior EU official familiar with the preparations for opening the clusters confirmed that a relevant proposal was being prepared.

"As for the draft common position, you know that it is adopted by the EU Council. The European Commission will make a proposal to the Council to amend this draft so that the Council can take it into account when making its decision, which we hope will be finalised in December," the official told a European Pravda correspondent in Brussels on condition of anonymity.

The senior official added that the European Commission has not yet submitted the relevant amendments to the Council of the EU.

"We haven't submitted them yet. We will do so very soon," the official added.

According to them, the final decision on amendments to the common negotiating position will be made by the EU Council.

As European Pravda reported, in early October, the European Commission proposed establishing special mechanisms for integrating Ukrainian agriculture into the EU's common agricultural market after Ukraine's accession.

The European Commission insists that Ukraine will open clusters 4 and 5 by the end of 2026, and – if the government and the Verkhovna Rada accelerate reforms – will close seven negotiating chapters as early as 2027.

Read also: European Commission proposes changes to EU rules to prepare for enlargement, including Ukraine's accession

Read also: EU drops forecasts for accession dates in hope Ukraine will speed up reforms

As noted in the European Pravda article, the introductory and descriptive sections of the roadmaps for Ukraine and Moldova are almost identical.

"But the specifics allow us to assert: the European Union has already recognised that Moldova has overtaken Ukraine," European Pravda writes.

Overall, the European Commission has its own internal ranking among the four leaders of European integration, and Ukraine ranks fourth, behind Moldova.

Moldova is considered "well advanced" in meeting the interim criteria. According to EP's sources, the European Commission has already prepared a positive statement on the Interim Benchmark Assessment Report (IBAR), i.e. the fundamental benchmarks, and should soon send it to the member states for approval.

"The EC's plans for the further course of negotiations are indicative. While for Ukraine the roadmap plans to start closing chapters at the end of the first quarter (and with Kyiv's current low progress in implementing the IBAR, even this seems ambitious), for Moldova it envisages closing nine chapters in the first half of 2027 alone and another 16 chapters by the end of the year – that is, 25 in a year," it reads.

Meanwhile, the EU did not predict in the roadmaps when the European integration leaders would conclude accession negotiations, hoping that Ukraine would accelerate its pace of reforms.

On 4 November, the European Commission published its annual enlargement package, assessing the progress of 10 EU candidate countries and placing Ukraine among the four countries that have made the greatest progress.

The Ukraine report showed that the European Commission's improved assessment of Ukraine's progress towards EU membership, particularly in anti-corruption, was achieved not thanks to, but despite the actions of the authorities.

The European Commission has so far set an expected date for signing an accession treaty only for Montenegro: June 2027. It has made no forecasts on the final accession dates for the other candidate countries.

This uncertainty remains specifically because of Ukraine.

The article notes that EU member states sent signals to the European Commission that an opportunity should be left for Kyiv to accelerate its progress.

"After all, Ukraine is currently lagging behind Moldova. The European Commission agreed that it would be politically incorrect to make an assessment suggesting that Moldova would join the EU sooner.

Emphasising further that Moldova would be ready for accession before Ukraine would be politically unwise. After all, the EU is ready to demonstrate in every possible way its desire to bring Ukraine into this enlargement wave, should reforms make progress," the article states. 

On 4 November, the European Commission published its annual enlargement package, assessing the progress of 10 EU candidate countries and placing Ukraine among the four countries that have made the greatest progress.

The Ukraine report showed that the European Commission's improved assessment of Ukraine's progress towards EU membership, particularly in anti-corruption, was achieved not thanks to, but despite the actions of the authorities.

"Ukraine has continued to advance on key sectoral reforms. Its institutional framework for combating corruption remains effective, with specialised anti-corruption institutions continuing to operate overall independently and effectively," a press release by the European Commission states.

Based on the EU enlargement assessment, the countries can broadly be divided into three groups:

• Ukraine, Moldova, Montenegro and Albania are making significant progress and actively moving towards membership
• North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo are seeing their EU integration processes effectively stagnate
• Serbia, Georgia and Türkiye are experiencing regression in certain areas or prolonged blockages in their accession negotiations.

The areas in which Ukraine has made good progress include public administration reform, developing the competitiveness of the economy, digital transformation, financial services, customs, energy, agriculture, science and education.

Meanwhile, the European Commission stressed the need to accelerate judicial and anti-corruption reforms and fulfil the commitments set out in the rule of law roadmap.

Earlier, Ihor Zhovkva, Deputy Head of the Office of the President, said that Ukraine plans to continue its EU integration efforts together with Moldova.

Ukraine's government and the European Commission established a Task Force at an early stage in order to secure approval within several months of draft laws regarding the rule of law and anti-corruption.

An earlier defence partnership agreement signed between the EU and Ukraine concerns drones to a certain extent but is not a real drone deal, Osadcha said.

"The joint declaration on the EU-Ukraine Defence Pact was already signed when chief of Commission Ursula von der Leyen visited Kyiv. That was largely announced in the media as an EU-Ukraine Drone Deal – so far, not yet. We are in conversation with the European Commission on this. But this is definitely something that we want to have with the European Union as the basis for our joint defence-industrial posture, and as a result for joint capabilities and in perspective also for absolutely joint actions in defence and deterrence in the region," Oksana Osadcha, advisor to the apparatus of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, said at the EU Accession Exchange Forum.

During a visit to Kyiv on 15 July, von der Leyen announced that she was launching a new defence-industrial partnership between the EU and Ukraine.

On 4 October, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine and Germany were preparing a Drone Deal.

Trump claimed that had he stood for election himself, the Republicans would have won by a huge margin in the 2 November elections.

"I wasn't on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!" he wrote on Truth Social.

Earlier, a White House official gave the same explanation for the Republicans' poor election performance to Politico journalists.

"President Trump was not on the ballot, and it's proven that Trump voters show up when he is on the ballot," the anonymous White House official said.

According to early results from the US midterm elections, the Republican Party is losing its majority in the Senate, with the Democrats securing the 51 seats needed to control the chamber.

The Democrats are also expected to win a majority in the House of Representatives.