How Ukraine will need to amend its Constitution to join the EU

Ukraine is preparing for the fact that joining the EU will require amendments to its Constitution.

For instance, Ukraine must recognise the application of decisions of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), and some acts of EU law will need to operate in Ukraine automatically, as norms of direct effect. The current Constitution does not provide for such possibilities.

The government acknowledges this need for amendments.

Read more to understand how profound these amendments need to be and how other states addressed similar requirements, joining the EU, in the article by EU law expert Bohdan Veselovsky – Eurostandard for the Constitution: How Ukraine needs to amend its basic law to join the EU.

All EU member states must maintain a balance between their national law, constitutional identity and EU law. Each country determines this balance independently. However, certain parameters of this relationship are universal for all EU members.

On the one hand, EU law takes precedence over the national laws of member states.

On top of that, there are safeguards to protect national law. For example, Article 4 of the Treaty on European Union obliges the EU to respect the fundamental functions of its member states, including maintaining territorial integrity, public order and national security. But there are constitutional limits that the EU must observe.

In Ukraine, Articles 8, 9 and 19 of the Constitution, as well as the section on the judiciary, require amendments.

For effective integration into the EU legal system, it is essential to amend Article 8 to recognise the supremacy of EU law, which has direct effect.

This will serve as the basis for avoiding legal conflicts between Ukraine's constitutional norms and its obligations to the EU.

If these amendments are not made, such legal conflicts will be inevitable.

Additionally, changes are needed to enable Ukrainian courts to refer cases to the ECJ for preliminary rulings on EU law issues and to recognize the binding nature of ECJ decisions in relevant areas.

For Ukraine, constitutional amendments aimed at EU integration are a strategically important step.

However, practically, this will only be possible after the suspension of martial law.

How did new EU members amend (or not) their Constitutions?

An important example is Croatia, not only because it was the most recent country to have joined the EU.

Croatia demonstrates how countries can make constitutional amendments in advance, without guarantees of EU membership. It amended its constitution in June 2010, even though its EU accession negotiations were still ongoing (13 out of 33 negotiation chapters remained open at the time).

Czechia amended its constitution in 2001, while negotiations were still in progress, but these changes only took effect in 2002.

Hungary, on the other hand, adopted constitutional amendments in 2003, after its accession negotiations had concluded.

However, not all EU members from the latest waves of enlargement introduced constitutional changes.

For instance, Poland avoided adding provisions specifically tied to membership.

Similar challenges exist for Bulgaria, where the constitutional status of EU law is not clearly defined, complicating the full integration of EU norms into national legislation.