What does Ukraine need for record-speed EU accession talks?

Ukraine aims not only to start accession negotiations, but also to open all the negotiation clusters by the end of 2025.

This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna at a conference titled Ukraine's Accession to the EU: Shaping the Transformation Agenda, where Stefanishyna also outlined the plan to achieve this record pace.

Nevertheless, Brussels has emphasised that Ukraine needs to meet certain conditions, some of which are politically sensitive. Specifically, the EU expects Kyiv to ease restrictions under martial law.

Perhaps the best news from the conference was the statement from Ukraine's parliamentary leadership about their willingness to fulfil the EU’s requirements.

Read more about the discussions during and around the conference on Friday in the article by Sergiy Sydorenko, European Pravda's editor – Easing martial law, reforms by 2027: what the EU expects of Ukraine on its path to membership.

A major conference on Ukraine’s EU accession had initially been planned to be held in Kyiv at the end of last year but was postponed to 2025, likely in the hope that the EU would provide more clarity on opening negotiation chapters while Ukraine would be able to "tie up loose ends" regarding its most pressing commitments.

The latter, however, has not gone smoothly. For example, in January, the Ukrainian parliament once again failed to gather enough votes for any of the bills aimed at repealing or amending the "Lozovyi amendments". Over the years, sorting out this issue has become one of the key demands of Ukraine’s Western partners and some Ukrainian activists.These demands are backed by the Ukrainian government and the parliamentary majority leadership. The business community, however, opposes the changes. As a result, there are currently not enough votes in parliament to break the deadlock.

Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna, who has been actively advocating for this EU requirement in recent months, ventured to make any forecasts. Stefanishyna, visibly frustrated with the parliamentary dialogue on this matter, admitted that negotiations with European partners are sometimes easier than with Ukrainian MPs.

Indeed, the plans announced by the deputy prime minister, and even preliminary agreements with EU countries, appear more specific.

Ukraine has agreed on a preliminary roadmap for accession negotiations.

This pace of process is unprecedented for the European Union.

No other candidate country has ever opened all negotiation clusters within a single year.

This raises the question: is the EU itself ready for such an accelerated pace, or is this just a Ukrainian ambition?

On Friday, additional reasons for optimism emerged.

Gert Jan Koopman, Director-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, joined the conference online. Reputedly sceptical of Ukraine’s "fast-track" ambitions, Koopman nevertheless voluntarily stated that opening all the negotiation clusters by the end of the year is realistic.

Such a clear statement from a high-ranking EU official signals that there is political will within the EU to allow Ukraine to proceed at an unprecedented speed. Koopman’s remark that this timeline "depends on Ukraine" deserves special attention.

He reminded Kyiv about "an element to which one EU member state pays particular attention" – a clear reference to Hungary’s concerns over national minority rights.

However, it would be a mistake to reduce everything to the Hungarian issue alone.

Despite Koopman’s positive remarks about Ukraine’s rapid accession process, much of his speech was framed as a warning signal for Kyiv. The discussion at the conference confirmed that Ukrainian officials received the message loud and clear.

Koopman outlined three key issues that the EU considers when assessing the stability of democracy in candidate countries.

Firstly, readiness for elections.

Another key focus of the EU’s assessment is civil society rights. Ukraine faces no significant criticism there.

The most problematic of the "big three" is the rights of the opposition in Ukraine, and here the EU does have concerns.

The lion's share of this work must be done by Ukraine's parliament, where problems have regularly arisen recently, as mentioned at the beginning of this article, specifically regarding the Lozovyi amendments.