Ukraine applied for EU membership on March 1, 2022. Two days later, the European Parliament adopted a resolution granting Ukraine candidate status. On June 23, 2022, the European Council granted Ukraine the status of an EU candidate. But, along with the status, the country received a list of options for "homework", or EU requirements

 The success of Ukrainian European integration depends on how they are implemented.

To be precise, we are not talking about the seven requirements of the EU, but about the seven blocks of reforms, the implementation of which the EU has determined as a condition for maintaining the status of a candidate. In some areas, Ukraine has unequivocally advanced.

The High Council of Justice began its work, parliamentarians voted for laws on the media and national minorities, a new head of the SAPO was appointed in July 2022, and anti-corruption bodies have significantly stepped up their work in recent months. In December, Ukraine introduced new selection criteria for judges of the Constitutional Court.

Almost a year later, on June 22, 2023, the European Commission, as expected, gave an interim oral assessment of how Ukraine is implementing the criteria for starting EU accession negotiations. According to the EC, Ukraine has fulfilled two of the seven criteria in full.

Regarding the other five, there is also progress. According to experts, Ukraine still has time to implement all the recommendations of the European Commission until October, when the EU will formally determine whether Ukraine has coped with the "homework" recommendations put forward a year ago.

What has Ukraine managed to do in a year in terms of justice to meet the requirements of EU membership?

The Ministry of Justice faced a serious, unprecedented challenge, namely, the adaptation of Ukrainian legislation to EU law in the context of a full-scale war.

Approximation of Ukrainian legislation to current EU law

At the end of 2022, the Ministry of Justice began to prepare a methodology and options for implementing the screening of Ukrainian legislation in the Justice, Freedom, and Security sector. This is a complex process in all respects, but supported by partners from the EU and Project Pravo-Justice, it began to develop rapidly and bore fruit as soon as February 2023.

The EU-Ukraine summit brought the second part of the report on the level of approximation of Ukrainian legislation to current EU law, prepared on the basis of processing Ukraine's answers to the EU questionnaire, which was provided back in 2022.

During the Ukraine-EU Summit on February 3, 2023, the preparation of the National Program for the Implementation of Ukrainian Legislation to the Law of the European Union (EU acquis) was initiated. An important condition for the preparation of this plan is to conduct an initial assessment of the state of implementation of European Union law acts (EU acquis) ("self-screening"), which consists in analyzing the compliance of Ukrainian legislation with EU legislation.

This process makes it possible to clearly determine at what stage Ukraine is currently in the implementation of European legislation, in other words to determine the areas where our legislation meets the requirements of EU law and where it does not.

The Ministry of Justice has already completed the first stage of the initial assessment of the state of implementation of European Union legal acts (EU acquis) in the negotiation sections: Section 23 "Judicial power and fundamental rights", Section 24 "Justice, freedom and security".

More than 1300 acts of EU law were analyzed. In addition, acts of other negotiation sections, in particular, in the field of human rights, justice, freedom and security, which are the main values ​​of the European Union, were assigned to the competence of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.

On March 4, the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated February 28, 2023 No. 189 came into force, which approved the Procedure for conducting an initial assessment of the state of implementation of European Union legal acts (EU acquis).

In accordance with the resolution adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, ministries and other central executive authorities must, by June 30, 2023, conduct an initial assessment of the state of implementation of EU law acts and submit an appropriate report and proposals to bring legislation in line with EU law by August 30.

The results of the analysis will reveal structural problems in the following sectors:

the rule of law, the judiciary, fundamental rights, as well as judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters.

As of June 30, 2023, based on the results of self-screening, the Ministry of Justice prepared 7 tables of compliance of Ukrainian legislation with European Union law (EU acquis) in the negotiation section 23 and 223 of the table in section 24.

At the moment, a report is being prepared on the results of the assessment along with proposals to bring the sectoral legislation of Ukraine in line with the requirements of European Union law (EU acquis).

Other solutions for speedy European integration

In December 2022, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a strategy for reforming the penitentiary system of Ukraine. It is clear that the preparation of a documentary base, its systematization with the introduction of the standards of the Council of Europe, and all this in the conditions of Russia's armed aggression is an extremely difficult task.

But thanks to the joint efforts of the employees of the Ministry of Justice, the work to establish and ensure the effective implementation of the strategy is proceeding at a high level.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted and the President signed the Law of Ukraine "On Administrative Procedure". It brings the relationship between the state, civil society and business to a new level and strengthens legal protection. The law introduces new approaches to the interaction of authorities with individuals and legal entities.

Ukraine has ratified the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention). The ratification of the convention strengthens the legal protection of the victims and provides them with access to justice and allows them to protect Ukrainian citizens who have suffered from violence not only in Ukraine, but also abroad.

A pilot project has been introduced to involve psychologists in criminal proceedings where minors are the defendants.

We are talking about regional centers for the provision of free secondary legal assistance. For this, a special register of psychologists is being created. The involvement of psychologists in criminal proceedings involving children will help to avoid re-traumatizing them and will contribute to the protection of their rights.

What's next? Of course, we expect to get EU membership as soon as possible, and the Ministry of Justice, for its part, is doing everything possible at the maximum maintainable speed.

But we understand that not all countries are ready to support our aspirations and there is still a lot of work to do, but this is an irreversible process, so it will not be possible to stop it. We will definitely follow this path and along with the expulsion of the enemy from our territory, joining the EU will be an important victory for Ukraine and all Ukrainians.

Publications in the "Expert Opinion" section are not editorial articles and solely reflect the authors' viewpoints.