How Association Agreement Helps EU Accession Negotiations

The Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union (EU) plays an important role in preparing for EU accession negotiations. In June of last year, Ukraine was granted EU candidacy, which demonstrated the EU's support for Ukraine in countering Russian aggression and a reassessment of the risks posed by Russia to its own security.

To learn about Ukraine's readiness to open EU accession negotiations and the time and resources required, especially in times of a full-scale war, read the article "Assessing readiness for accession negotiations: How Ukraine implements EU Association Agreement" by Dmytro Naumenko and Liubov Akulenko from the Ukrainian Center for European Policy.

Ukraine still needs to fulfill seven recommendations from the European Commission to open the negotiations. However, the assessment of readiness for accession started in March when the European Commission published the first "candidate" report for Ukraine.

The Ukrainian government is expected to complete a self-assessment on aligning Ukrainian legislation with EU norms by the end of June.

The only possible indicator to judge Ukraine's readiness to open accession negotiations is the implementation of the Association Agreement. According to assessments by the Ukrainian Center for European Policy, presented in an independent monitoring report from 2014 to 2022, the overall implementation rate of the Association Agreement reached 55% by the end of 2022.

The percentage of "full" implementation, which considers only tasks that have been successfully completed, stood at 30.4%.

Unfortunately, during the second half of 2021 and 2022, the overall progress increased by only 6% (full implementation grew by 4.8%), mainly due to the negative impact of the war on the state governance system.

Ukraine significantly intensified the compliance of its legislation with EU norms during the second half of 2022, when it started taking steps to fulfill the seven "candidate" recommendations of the European Commission. Several important Eurointegration laws were adopted as part of this process.

The start of EU accession negotiations could push Eurointegration reforms, as it would be based on a broader and more recent basis of EU legislation given Ukraine's current progress in its implementation.

On the other hand, at the "zero" or "early" stage of implementation, approximately 40% of Ukraine's commitments are still outstanding.

This is significant because the government still needs to fulfill many obligations under the Association Agreement to have a strong negotiating position.

Such obligations often require systemic, complex, and costly changes, which implementation requires political will and serious organisational efforts from all stakeholders.

The Association Agreement remains the main instrument for sectoral integration between Ukraine and the European Union until EU accession negotiations.

Perhaps 2023 will be the last "alive" year for the Association Agreement until Ukraine receives a detailed vision from the EU regarding the obligations of the accession process.

However, until that moment, the tools provided by the Agreement should be applied to the maximum by Ukraine to prepare a stronger negotiating position and reap the benefits of bilateral sectoral cooperation.