Jun. 16 — On Jun. 15, Ukraine and the European Union officially opened the negotiation process under Cluster 1, “Fundamentals of the European Union Accession Process” during the second Intergovernmental Conference in Luxembourg, said the National Agency on Corruption Prevention.

According to the methodology, Cluster 1 is opened first and remains open until the conclusion of membership negotiations. It covers issues related to the rule of law, preventing and combating corruption, the functioning of democratic institutions, public administration reform, the protection of fundamental rights, financial control, justice and security, the development of a market economy and maintaining macro-financial stability, public procurement, and statistics, said the agency. 

Progress in these areas will determine the speed of further negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU.

Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a people’s deputy, said that this step changes the course of the process, and that now the speed of integration and the amount of financial support from the EU depend directly on Ukraine’s implementation of reforms.

To open negotiations, Ukraine has completed the necessary preparatory steps, including the development and implementation of roadmaps for the rule of law, public administration reform, the functioning of democratic institutions, and an action plan to protect the national minorities’ rights.

Currently, Ukraine has received a list of commitments as part of its European integration and financial plan. Some of them concern anti-corruption reform, the judicial system, and law enforcement agencies.

An important component of this cluster is the anti-corruption policy. Ukraine must adopt and ensure the implementation of the Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2026–2030, along with the State Anti-Corruption Program for its implementation of this strategy.

Zhelezniak also said that progress in implementing anti-corruption commitments has been lacking in recent months and that Ukraine has implemented about 10% of the planned measures. In his opinion, this puts at risk not only EU’s funding but also the speed of Ukraine’s accession to the EU.

Negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU are conducted across 35 negotiation chapters that cover the main areas of EU law and policy. 33 of these chapters are grouped into six negotiation clusters, and chapters 34, “Institutions,” and 35, “Other Issues,” are considered separately.

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