On 8 November in Brussels, the European Commission adopted a long-anticipated but still interim decision regarding the start of Ukraine's EU accession negotiations.

The European Commission's decision has to be confirmed by the member states during the European Council summit on December 14-15, and Ukraine needs to fulfil four more conditions to begin negotiations.

The lobbying law causes the most concern.

Read more on possible issues on Ukraine's path to the European Union in the column by Oleksandra Bulana and Liubov Akulenko from the Ukrainian Center for European Policy: Unpleasant Signals from EU: What Ukraine Needs to Pay Attention to Right Now.

The authors remind us that if the European Council approves the European Commission's recommendation to start negotiations in mid-December, the next step should be the adoption of a negotiating framework – setting guidelines and principles for accession negotiations. After that, the First Intergovernmental Conference should take place, along with a screening of the candidate country's legislation.

"And only then would the opening and closing of chapters, or negotiations, begin," explain the experts.

However, as Bulana and Akulenko write, the European Commission's decision specifies that the negotiating framework should be adopted only after Ukraine fulfils four more conditions. In particular, these include increasing the staff of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, expanding the powers of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, adopting a lobbying law, and amending legislation on national minorities in line with the recommendations of the Venice Commission.

The condition for the lobbying law causes the most concern.

"The problem is that since the decision to grant Ukraine candidate status and the presentation of seven EC conditions, the need to adopt this law had not been mentioned publicly even once," the authors underline.

According to them, Ukraine is currently not ready to implement this requirement.

Katarína Mathernová, the head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, commenting on this requirement, noted that some of the demands are not provided for by EU law, "but they are part of the EU fundamental values."

"And this is indeed the case. When the negotiation process reaches the opening of the EU legislation clusters the first one will be the 'Fundamental Reforms,'" the experts note.

The "Fundamental Reforms" includes chapters such as the Judicial System and Fundamental Rights (Chapter 23), Justice, Freedom, and Security (Chapter 24), and others.

According to Bulana and Akulenko, the new EU enlargement methodology stipulates that so-called interim benchmarks are set for the country in such chapters, which it must fulfil to demonstrate progress in the respective sector.

"And our interest is for them to be clearly formulated and not allow for ambiguous interpretations, as was the case with the seven candidate conditions. It is also important that in the process of fulfilling these conditions, they do not transform into new ones, as happened with the lobbying law. Otherwise, the EU accession negotiation process risks turning into a never-ending story," the experts emphasise.

Representatives of the Ukrainian Center for European Policy in a report published together with the European Commission's recommendation to start negotiations with Ukraine have seen some cases where recommendations for Ukraine clearly go beyond the implementation of the EU acquis.

According to government estimates, Ukraine needs to implement over 3,000 EU acts. Considering the scale of this task and the resources it will require, it is important for Ukraine to advocate the position of not taking on obligations beyond those provided for by EU law.

It is crucial for Ukraine to take a proactive position in the negotiations.

Both civil society and the business environment should participate in this process and support the state in preparing for negotiations and developing a negotiating position.