Why public administration reform is urgent for Ukraine's EU membership

The EU Enlargement Report was published on 30 October, including an analysis of Ukraine's progress.

Several Ukrainian journalists and researchers have shared their views on the report, with the main criticism being that Ukraine has not shown substantial progress this year for a swift EU accession.

This is true but incomplete. Moreover, no one is addressing the "elephant in the room" – the unfinished reform of public administration.

This reform needs to start immediately for successful progress in the negotiation process. says by Liubov Akulenko, Executive Director of the Ukrainian Centre for European Policy – The main reason for problems: Why Ukraine didn't make a breakthrough in the EU enlargement report.

The author first notes that progress in aligning Ukrainian legislation with EU requirements in 2024 (1.82 points) appears modest compared to 2023 (1.68 points) only because the 2023 report does not represent a year's worth of progress.

"This is actually cumulative data on the implementation of the Association Agreement (AA), which we began implementing back in 2014. So, it reflects nine years of progress," writes Liubov Akulenko.

She points out that Ukraine shows consistent positive results only in areas that were previously addressed within the framework of the Association Agreement and where there was a clear understanding of the benefits, such as partial access to the European market.

However, the expert warns that the most significant achievement in the negotiation process will be high ratings in the Fundamentals cluster.

"We will need to complete the work on political and legal reforms – work that we have always put off for later," Akulenko writes.

According to her, Ukraine should not only rely on achievements within the Association Agreement framework but should elevate its work in the negotiation process to an entirely new level.

The expert believes that public administration reform will help strengthen Ukraine's institutional negotiation structure, making it resilient to political changes.

"It's necessary to create special policy directorates in each ministry and adapt the structure of the Government Office for Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration to the negotiation process," suggests the author.

She is confident that Ukraine needs to create attractive working conditions (such as bonuses or training abroad with mandatory service in Ukraine) for EU law experts working on the negotiation process.

This work should become prestigious and appealing. Efforts must be made to ensure that each ministry has strong teams preparing negotiation positions and working on alignment with EU legislation.

"Aside from the staffing issue, Ukraine needs to develop and adopt a National Program for the Adaptation and Implementation of all EU legislation. This should now be among the top priorities in the area of European integration," the author notes.