The European Commission believes that Ukraine has fully fulfilled four of the seven requirements for accession. This is stated in the report on Ukraine, an internal document of the European Commission, which was obtained by Radio Liberty.
The following criteria are considered complete:
- implementation of legislation on the procedure for selecting judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, in accordance with the recommendations of the Venice Commission
- completion of the integrity check of candidates to the High Council of Justice and establishment of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine
- compliance of anti-money laundering legislation with FATF standards and approval of a strategic plan for reforming the entire law enforcement sector
- reform of the media sector - bringing Ukrainian legislation in line with the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive.
For three more criteria, the European Commission has written recommendations for their further implementation.
In particular, further fight against corruption is not considered to be fully completed. The European Commission was expecting, in particular, the appointment of a new head of the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and a director of the NABU.
The European Commission's document states that "Ukraine should still adopt a law to increase the NABU's staffing and remove from the law on corruption prevention the provisions limiting the NACP's powers to continue verification of assets that have already been verified and limiting the NACP's powers to verify property acquired by declarants before entering public service".
As for limiting the excessive influence of oligarchs, which Brussels also expected from Kyiv, it says that "Ukraine should still adopt a law on lobbying in line with European standards".
With regard to the reform of legislation on national minorities, it was recalled that not all of the Venice Commission's recommendations have been implemented. The European Commission notes the need to implement the remaining observations mentioned "in the conclusion of June 2023 and its subsequent opinion of October 2023, in particular by amending the laws on the state language, media and education".
The assessment of Ukraine's progress towards the EU is scheduled to be officially presented tomorrow.