How the European Commission assessed Ukraine's progress over the past year and when Kyiv plans to accelerate reforms

On 30 October, the European Commission published its annual enlargement report, a comprehensive document assessing the situation in all candidate countries.

Since last year, Ukraine has been included in the enlargement package, meaning the EU sees it as a future member state. Ukraine is covered in a separate 100-page document that audits the country’s readiness for EU accession across every sector and negotiation chapter, as well as the pace of its progress.

The pace of Ukraine’s compliance with the EU is mixed.

The report gives a lukewarm assessment of the volume of reforms over the past year but emphasises that right now, the focus is on screening speed and preparation for opening chapters, where the situation is quite positive. But Ukraine should also be prepared for new requirements coming from EU member states.

Read more in the article by Sergiy Sydorenko, the European Pravda editor – From "corruption" to newscast: what EU expects from Ukraine and how it assesses its readiness to join.

The second full report on Ukraine, released this year, was intended to show how swiftly Ukraine is complying with the EU.

The indicators in this report do not provide much cause for optimism. The European Commission rated Ukraine’s reform pace at last year’s low level.

On a scale from 0 to 4, it received 1.79 (last year, it was 1.68). In six out of 33 areas, Ukraine demonstrated "good progress," which is an average mark. However, it achieved no top score in the speed of reforms in any of the future EU negotiation chapters.

It could take centuries to join the EU at this pace!

One might think that this would be a wake-up call for Ukraine’s EU integration team. But not really.

All European Pravda’s sources in Kyiv and Brussels urge against drawing hasty conclusions, stressing that this pause, while unfortunate, is offset by other achievements.

"Right now, the report isn’t the main focus. We’re preparing for the opening of negotiation chapters, conducting screenings. And everything is going positively here," explained a European diplomat who shared insights on the internal workings of Ukraine-EU negotiations on condition of anonymity.

The importance of screening and its positive progress is confirmed in the report itself. Another positive signal is that, in an official statement, the European Commission expressed its intention to open multiple negotiation clusters with Ukraine soon. This detail, though technical, represents a significant breakthrough for Brussels.

It indicates that the EU is inclined toward accelerated negotiations with Ukraine.

However, if the current reform pace continues, this opportunity will not be fully used by Ukraine. The pace needs to increase significantly. Still, there are reasons for optimism in 2025.

Since EU enlargement is an open-ended process that depends on the candidate state’s efforts, the document contains no deadlines for implementing particular reforms. This is actually one of the reasons why Ukraine’s progress has slowed sharply over the past year.

The European Commission finally concluded that Ukraine’s reform of minority rights legislation last year, in response to EU and Hungary’s requirements, was sufficient. When it comes to anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine, the EU’s assessment is much better than many anticipated.

The European Commission has made it clear that it does not expect elections in Ukraine until martial law is lifted. The EC also defended the opposition, noting certain issues, and for the first time has publicly criticised the newscast.

Most importantly, the EU included changes in the media landscape to the top priorities for Ukraine as a candidate country.

This illustrates how the West is beginning to scrutinise Kyiv’s references to martial law as justification for limiting rights. While this argument remains effective in some areas (such as elections), it is increasingly unpersuasive in others.

Overall, the 100-page report on Ukraine is a thorough and balanced document. There’s criticism of Ukraine, and it’s well-aimed. And there are positive signals where Kyiv’s efforts deserve support.