The European Commission has confirmed that Ukraine has met the conditions required to open all remaining negotiation clusters. The country’s level of preparedness for accession improved in nine chapters, while no deterioration was recorded in any area.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Serhii Koretskyi reported this.
According to Koretskyi, the European Commission’s annual report on Ukraine was personally presented to him by EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarína Mathernová.
The prime minister said Ukraine’s level of preparedness for accession improved in nine chapters — more than twice as many as last year.
The European Commission assessed progress as good or very good in ten chapters. These include energy, the digital sphere, financial services, taxation, education, science, agriculture and customs.
For the first time, the area of foreign policy, security and defense received the highest progress assessment.
The European Commission also noted that Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions operate independently and effectively. Assessments in the judiciary and justice sectors also improved.
Next goal — IBAR in early 2027
According to Koretskyi, Ukraine’s next objective is to receive an Interim Benchmark Assessment Report — IBAR — in early 2027.
To achieve this, a joint Ukraine-EU working group was created at the initiative of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“We are setting ambitious but achievable goals. There are areas where we need to move faster. We are taking the European Commission’s recommendations into work,” the prime minister said.
Koretskyi also plans to take part in the Enlargement Forum in Brussels in the near future, where further steps to accelerate Ukraine’s path toward EU membership will be discussed.
Earlier, “Glavnoe in Ukraine” reported that the European Commission had presented an indicative roadmap for Ukraine for the coming year and confirmed that Kyiv had met the conditions for opening all remaining negotiation clusters. Brussels also stressed that Ukraine needs to accelerate reforms in order to complete accession negotiations by the end of 2028.
