What should drive Ukraine for effective EU accession
Effective public administration is the driving force behind Ukraine's EU accession.
The Ukrainian Center for European Policy (UCEP) emphasised the importance of establishing a high-quality institutional structure for the negotiation process.
Read more about the necessity of public administration reform and the initial steps Ukraine should take to ensure successful negotiations with the EU in the article by Liubov Akulenko and Snizhana Diachenko of the NGO Ukrainian Center for European Policy – Why Public administration reform is essential for Ukraine's successful EU accession.
Several public discussions have recently taken place, including a presentation of UCEP's research – The Institutional Model of EU Accession Negotiations: Lessons for Ukraine.
According to the authors, during these discussions, experts highlighted, and MPs and government officials did not dispute, the importance of implementing public administration reform.
The experts stress that the government must take action by assessing the shortage of human resources in ministries, calculating the necessary funding for the reform, and announcing specific dates for its launch.
"These baseline data will be critical in developing negotiation positions, as Ukraine must inform the EU about its administrative capacity to implement the EU acquis and specify the resources it lacks," explain Akulenko and Diachenko.
Moreover, it is essential to create an "elite division" of civil servants well-versed in EU law and national legislation for successful EU accession.
Ukraine needs a professional team within relevant ministries and other responsible authorities to implement practical recommendations from the EU and report on their progress.
Screening and preparing roadmap projects are only the first and relatively simple steps for Ukraine. The real work will begin when the EU establishes target indicators for the Foundations cluster, at which point the specialised team must "step into action."
According to the article's authors, the following are the critical actions Ukraine should take immediately:
- Strengthen the Government Office for Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration for the negotiation process. Public administration reform should create incentives to attract professionals to civil service and retain them in their positions until the negotiations conclude.
- Establish policy directorates in all ministries and ensure effective horizontal coordination among them. Weak horizontal coordination currently hinders policymaking, and accession negotiations will further exacerbate this issue.
- Protect civil servants in ministries from political dismissals (either formally or informally). Public administration reform must safeguard "technocrats" from politically motivated dismissals, particularly those involved in negotiations and serving on negotiation teams.
- Provide the EU with comprehensive information on the funds, personnel, and timelines required to launch public administration reform.