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Ukraine - EU Relations

On 21 June 2024, the Council of the European Union approved the negotiation framework for Ukraine and Moldova. “The EU Council adopted the general EU positions, including negotiating frameworks, for accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. This opens the way for launching the negotiations on Tuesday 25 June in Luxembourg,” the announcement reads. This decision means that an intergovernmental conference will be held on 25 June to then officially launch negotiations on both states’ accession to the EU.

On 15 December 2023 "The European Council reiterates its resolute condemnation of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which constitutes a manifest violation of the UN Charter, and reaffirms the European Union’s unwavering support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders and its inherent right of self-defence against the Russian aggression.... , the European Council insists on the importance of timely, predictable and sustainable military support for Ukraine, notably through the European Peace Facility and the EU Military Assistance Mission, as well as through direct bilateral assistance by Member States. The European Council stresses the urgent need to accelerate the delivery of missiles and ammunition... The European Council encourages further efforts, including in the Core Group, to establish a tribunal for the prosecution of the crime of aggression against Ukraine that would enjoy the broadest cross-regional support and legitimacy, and a future compensation mechanism...

"The European Council decides to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and with the Republic of Moldova." Ukraine was a step closer to joining the EU after accession talks began in Brussels. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is warning he could veto Ukraine's membership bid at any time, but Ukrainians are celebrating the progress.

Ukraine is already working on the tasks necessary to join the EU, in particular, on bringing our country’s legislation in line with the European acquis. This was announced 16 December 2023 by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal at a meeting of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the President of Ukraine. “Yesterday, the leaders of the European Union member states made a truly historic decision. We are starting official negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU. I am grateful to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has led us to establish such a powerful pro-Ukrainian coalition,” the Head of Government said.

He stressed that the path to EU membership would require a huge amount of work, which our country had already begun. According to Denys Shmyhal, about 28,000 EU legal acts have been analysed for compliance with Ukrainian legislation. According to preliminary estimates, more than 23,000 do not require implementation during the negotiation process, while 1,625 acts have already been fully implemented in Ukrainian legislation.

“2,739 acts are subject to further implementation. This is our scope of work for the coming years, which we shall do. We understand how to do it and when we will accomplish it. We have the expertise, teams, resources – we have it all. And most importantly, we have the will of the whole of Ukraine. All together, from parliamentarians and government officials to our communities, to society,” the Prime Minister stressed.

In his statement, Denys Shmyhal also stressed that along with the work on regulatory acts, Ukraine continued to integrate into the single European market. In particular, the Ukrainian power grid has been fully integrated with the European one. The objectives for 2024 include the extension of transport and economic visa-free travel, as well as the early acquisition of industrial visa-free travel, which will facilitate access to European markets for Ukrainian producers. In addition, it is planned to implement EU roaming regulations to obtain a ‘roaming visa-free regime’.

The European Union’s executive recommended opening formal membership talks with Ukraine, as soon as it meets final conditions, in a major show of support for Kyiv in its battle against Russia. “This is a strong and historic step that paves the way to a stronger EU with Ukraine as its member,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on social media on 08 November 2023. “Our country must be in the European Union. Ukrainians deserve it both for their defence of European values and for the fact that even in times of full-scale war, we keep our word,” he said.

The European Commission, which also paved the way for discussions to begin with Moldova, recommended that the talks should formally be launched once Ukraine satisfies remaining conditions related to reining in corruption, adopting a law on lobbying in line with EU standards and strengthening national minority safeguards.

In Ukraine, the decision to grant EU candidate status created a powerful reform dynamic, despite the ongoing war, with strong support from the people of Ukraine. The Ukrainian government and Parliament demonstrated resolve in making substantial progress on meeting the 7 steps of the European Commission Opinion on Ukraine's EU membership application. Ukraine has established a transparent pre-selection system for the Constitutional Court judges and reformed the judicial governance bodies. It has further developed its track record of high-level corruption investigations and convictions and strengthened its institutional framework. Ukraine has taken positive steps in a wider and systemic effort to address the influence of oligarchs. The country has also demonstrated its capacity to make progress in aligning with the EU acquis, even during wartime.

The commission in June 2022 set Kyiv seven reform benchmarks to complete, including tackling corruption and curbing oligarch power, before talks should start. Von der Leyen said Ukraine had now completed “well over 90 percent of the necessary steps”. The positive signal from the EU provides a vital boost to Ukraine at a difficult time. However, whether EU countries will be ready by December to approve the talks with the war-torn country of more than 40 million people is uncertain.

Ukraine's accession to the European Union is an integral part of the country's strategic vision. And in this context, a historic event took place 19 April 2022, going through one of the stages before joining the EU. Ukraine provided answers to a questionnaire received from Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and Josep Borrell, Head of European Diplomacy. Each country that joined the European Union went through the same procedure with the questionnaire. The only difference is that it took them years, and Ukraine - a little more than a week. The status of a candidate for EU membership will open unprecedented opportunities in our history for the restoration and modernization of Ukraine.

Ukraine is making progress on political reforms to open the way for European Union membership talks but still needs to progress in five important areas, senior EU officials said 23 June 2023. The assessment, by the EU's executive body, the European Commission, offered Kyiv hope that it could achieve its aim of getting the green light for membership talks in December even it fights to repel Russia's invasion. But it also made clear that Ukraine has a way to go just to complete the seven steps that the EU outlined last year when it granted Kyiv the status of a candidate for membership. "They are on track, they are working hard. After all, the country is under attack," said Oliver Varhelyi, the European Commissioner for relations with the EU's neighbours. "Compared to that, I think that they are delivering."

Kyiv had completed two of the seven steps – reform of two judicial bodies and the adoption of media legislation in line with EU standards said Varhelyi. He said Ukraine had made progress but had more work to do on constitutional court reform, on measures to fight corruption, money laundering and curb the influence of oligarchs, and on the treatment of minorities.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whose country endured a massive unprovoked invasion from neighboring Russia, called on the European Union to grant Ukraine membership under a special procedure immediately, a move bloc officials said was unlikely. Zelenskiy, whose country was under attack from Russia, appealed to the EU on 28 February 2022 "for the immediate accession of Ukraine via a new special procedure."

"Our goal is to be with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be equal. I'm sure that's fair. I am sure we deserve it," he said in a video speech shared on social media. “Europeans are witnessing how our soldiers are fighting not only for our country, but for all of Europe, for peace, for peace for all, for all the countries of the European Union," Zelenskiy said. “Ukrainians have shown to the world who we are, while Russia has showed what it has turned into…. Every crime, every shelling by the occupier only unites us more,” Zelenskiy added.

The presidents of eight Eastern European countries -- Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia -- signed a letter on February 28 saying Ukraine "deserves receiving an immediate EU accession perspective." They urged EU members to enable the bloc's institutions to take steps toward granting Ukraine status as an EU candidate country and to start the process of accession talks.

The Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union came into force in full on 01 September 2017. The Senate of the Netherlands supported the ratification of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union on 30 May 2017. The Netherlands was the last EU member state that ratified the agreement.

Simon Tilford notes that "A country with centrifugal tendencies, deeper Soviet scars, a weak basis for civil society and a powerful neighbour intent on frustrating its development explains much of the difference in economic performance with Poland. The EU accounts for much of the rest. From the mid-1990s, the EU’s drive to engage with Russia and build commercial links with it took precedence over the needs of Ukraine. Indeed, many EU governments were happy to consider Ukraine as part of Russia’s legitimate sphere of influence. And the country’s opaque politics and extraordinary levels of corruption provided them with a useful justification for condemning Ukraine to this fate."

The EU is seeking an increasingly close relationship with Ukraine, going beyond mere bilateral co-operation, to gradual economic integration and a deepening of political co-operation. Ukraine is a priority partner country within the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and the Eastern Partneship (EaP). The Partnership and Co-operation Agreement (PCA) which entered into force in 1998 and provides a comprehensive and ambitious framework for cooperation between the EU and Ukraine, in all key areas of reform.

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko signed a landmark trade and economic agreement with the European Union in Brussels 27 June 2014, and said he would decide later whether to extend the unilateral cease-fire he announced a week earlier in the military campaign against pro-Russian separatists. Poroshenko said Ukraine had paid "the highest possible price" to sign the free trade agreement with the EU, which he called "historic."

Poroshenko said September 25, 2014 his country will apply for membership in the European Union in 2020 as part of a broader plan for social and economic reforms. Poroshenko said the planned reforms, consisting of 60 separate initiatives, will prepare Ukraine to join the 28-nation bloc. "Anti-corruption reform, judicial reform, reform of the defense system, decentralization of power, energy independence are the priorities," said Poroshenko. He said he hoped that legislative elections set for October 2014 would result in a pro-reform parliamentary majority.

At the Paris Summit in September 2008 an agreement was reached to start negotiations on an EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, which is to be the successor agreement to the PCA. Several negotiating Rounds have since been organised, alternately in Brussels and Kiev (see: 4th Joint Progress Report on Negotiations on the Association Agreement ). In November 2009, the Cooperation Council adopted the EU-Ukraine Association Agenda which was subsequently updated in 2011. This Agenda replaces the former Action Plan , and will prepare for and facilitate the entry into force of the new Agreement. In view of the current level of the EU-Ukraine relations, the EU-Ukraine Cooperation Council endorsed the updated version of the EU-Ukraine Association Agenda on June, 24th, 2013.

At the 15th Ukraine-EU Summit of 19 December 2011, the EU leaders and President Yanukovych noted that a common understanding on the text of the Association Agreement was reached. On 10 December 2012, the EU Foreign Affairs Council adopted Council conclusions on Ukraine which affirmed the EU’s commitment to signing the Agreement (inc. DCFTA) as soon as there is determined action and tangible progress by Ukraine on the benchmarks contained in the Conclusions.

On 15 May 2013, the EU Commission adopted, without prejudice to a future political decision on possible signature, the proposals for Council Decisions on the signing and provisional application as well as the conclusion of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, was transmitted to the Council for further processing. With this important decision, the EU took a necessary preparatory step in order to be technically ready for the possible signing of the Association Agreement (inc. DCFTA) at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius in November 2013.

In a specific statement, the EU Commission also took the view that the signing of the Agreement remains conditional on determined action and tangible progress by Ukrainian authorities on all of the benchmarks set out by the 10 December 2012 Council Conclusions. Therefore, the Commission, together with the EEAS, will continue to monitor Ukraine's progress.

The Association Agreement will significantly deepen Ukraine’s political association and economic integration with the EU. As Ukraine became a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in May 2008, negotiations on the establishment of a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) could be launched, as an integral part of the Association Agreement.

In November 2013, the European Union and Ukraine were scheduled to sign Association and Free Trade Agreements, which would lead Ukraine to move further from Russia’s sphere of influence. Russia is trying to prevent this development but some experts say its methods are backfiring. To sign the Association and Free Trade Agreements with the European Union, the Ukrainian parliament had to adopt legislation to bring the country's laws into compliance with European standards. The EU also demanded an end to politically-motivated prosecutions and the release of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Despite a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that her right to a fair trial was violated, she remained in jail on abuse of power charges.

Tymoshenko, with her trademark golden peasant’s braid, is the darling of some Europeans. But she is the devil to Ukraine’s president. He narrowly lost to her coalition in the 2005 presidential election, and narrowly beat her in the 2010 presidential election. The next year, she was convicted of embezzlement and abuse of power and sentenced to seven years in jail. Now the EU said: Free Yulia, or no trade deal. Germany said it will take her in. Tymoshenko said she will go. A pro-Yanukovych newspaper carried a Tymoshenko photo with the headline: “Guten Tag, Berlin!” But Yanukovych fears that Tymoshenko will return to Ukraine to run against him in the 2015 presidential election.

About one quarter of Ukrainian trade is with Russia. Russia, striving to keep Ukraine in its orbit, offered an alternative: joining the Customs Union. Ukraine would not need to fulfill any requirements and will enjoy free trade with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, and pay lower prices for Russian natural gas. In August 2013, Russia blocked imports from Ukraine. Some goods suddenly failed to satisfy Russian safety and quality standards or had other difficulties passing through customs.

According to one 2013 poll, 41 percent of Ukrainians supported joining the EU and 31 percent were in favor of the Customs Union. In a poll from October 2013, 45 percent of Ukrainians favored the association agreement with the European Union. This was three times greater than the 14 percent who wanted to join the Moscow-led economic bloc.

The Kremlin warned Kiev that it would be subject to a harsh new customs regime if it signed the EU agreements, and has also demanded prompt payments for huge natural gas bills. Russia threatened to limit the import of Ukrainian goods, particularly from the eastern regions that constitute the Ukrainian president’s support base. Such a Russian move would have cost Ukraine heavy financial losses and caused the closure of companies where thousands of people work.

Ukraine sent shockwaves through Europe when it announced a halt to preparations for association agreements with the European Union. Ukraine's Cabinet said 21 November 2013 it was suspending preparations to sign the historic trade and cooperation agreement with the EU, after the country's parliament earlier in the day refused to pass legislation that would free jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. The former prime minister's release was a key EU condition for signing the Association Agreement with Ukraine. Ukraine's prime minister Mykola Azarov said the suspension of the preparations for signing the pact was in the interests of "national security." He also said the decision not to sign a landmark deal strengthening ties with the European Union was based on economics, and that the move does not alter Ukraine's strategy of EU integration. The suspension order said Ukraine would resume an "active dialogue" with Belarus and Kazakhstan, members of a Russian-led customs union, and other former Soviet states with the goal of reviving trade and economic relations.

The Ukrainian and European parliaments simultaneously ratified Ukraine’s Association Agreement with the European Union on 16 September 2014. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called the unanimous vote a “first, but very decisive step” toward bringing Ukraine into European Union membership. The agreement establishes a deep political association and free-trade area between Ukraine and the EU. However, the EU and Ukraine agreed on September 12 to delay implementation of the free-trade pact until the end of 2015 in a concession to Russia, which has pushed Kyiv to join a Russian-led Eurasian customs union.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said April 27, 2015 that his country will be able to meet the conditions to apply for European Union membership within five years, while European Union officials rejected his request call for an EU peace-keeping mission to eastern Ukraine, where a year of fighting between government and Russia-backed separatist forces had killed more than 6,100 people.

"We are ambitious in our plans and our belief, and that's why we declare that within five years we will provide effective implementation of the [EU] association agreement and meet conditions required to apply for membership in the European Union," Poroshenko said at the start of a summit with top EU officials in Kyiv.

On 17 May 2017, President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani and Malta's Interior Minister Carmelo Abela, presiding at the Council of the European Union, signed a document on amending the bloc's legislation to grant Ukrainians the 90-day visa-free regime, which entered into force at midnight local time on 11 June 2017. "We [Ukraine and Russia] finally became independent from each other, including politically, economically, energetically and mentally," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stated.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a constitutional amendment committing the country to becoming a member of NATO and the European Union. Addressing parliament on 19 February 2019, Poroshenko said he saw securing Ukraine's membership in NATO and the EU as his "strategic mission." Ukraine should "submit a request for EU membership and receive a NATO membership action plan no later than 2023," the president told the Verkhovna Rada. However, he acknowledged that his country needs to come a "long way" to meet the criteria of joining both institutions.

European Council President Donald Tusk attended the signing of the constitutional amendment in the parliament building. Addressing the lawmakers in Ukrainian, Tusk, who is Polish, said that "there can be no Europe without Ukraine.”