Ukraine is starting work within the negotiation clusters on EU accession not from scratch, but with substantial prior preparation, and the plan to complete the alignment of Ukrainian legislation with EU laws by the end of 2027 remains in place.
Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Taras Kachka said this at a press conference following the intergovernmental conference on Ukraine’s EU accession.
"Opening the clusters is a matter of unity and a decision by all 27 EU member states. All documents are ready. They need to be approved by all member states in the COREPER format, and I think everything will be fine," Kachka said.
Asked about possible timelines for Ukraine’s accession, the deputy prime minister said that Ukraine’s plan to fulfill all requirements and complete the alignment of its legislation with EU law by the end of 2027 remains unchanged.
"It should be taken into account that within the framework of the Association Agreement, Ukraine has already achieved a high level of implementation of EU legislation, so we are not starting from zero. For us, the opening of a cluster means moving to the final stage of negotiations, where we can verify, check, and prove that we have done everything required. Even in the area of the rule of law, which is considered the most demanding, all institutions are functioning, and we have achieved significant progress in long-term structural reforms," Kachka said.
He recalled that judicial reform began 10 years ago and that Ukraine is now seeing "significant results" in the selection of judges for anti-corruption courts, appellate courts, and courts of first instance.
