Ukraine’s path to European Union membership and its long-term implications

The Commission conducts the negotiations on behalf of the EU, but the Council has to agree unanimously to the formal opening and closing of each chapter, and other parts of the negotiations, giving each EU member many veto opportunities in the process. [...] 4 Policy Brief | Issue n˚05/24 | March 2024 2.2.2 Rule of law Given the problems of corruption in Ukraine and attacks on the rule of law in some current EU countries, the EU cannot afford to compromise on the quality and resilience of the rule of law in further enlargement. [...] For the period after accession, the overall security priorities of the EU will be largely deter- mined by the conduct of the war and the terms under which it ends. [...] In preparation for Ukraine’s membership, the EU can already increasingly involve Ukraine in the governance of its internal energy market, eg through making the Ukrainian regulator an observer in the working groups of the European Agency for the Coordination of Energy Regulators (ACER). [...] We calculate the average from 2010-2019 to ex- clude the period of the global financial and the preceding years, which were characterised by unsustainable bubbles in many of these countries, and also to exclude the period of the COVID-19 pandemic.