On the path to the EU: how Ukraine’s economy can integrate faster with the European one

Ukraine plans to fully integrate into the EU single market over the next two years and become a de facto member of the union. To do so, the government and business will have to do a lot of preparatory work. So, what changes should we expect?

As the process of preparing for negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union continues, our country has to do a lot of preparatory work, including adapting national legislation to the EU norms, which, by the way, are also constantly changing.

As Maria Repko, deputy director of the Centre for Economic Strategy, said in a commentary to UNIAN, Ukraine will continue its action plan to adapt its legislation to European directives under the DCFTA (Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area – UNIAN) and the Association Agreement with the EU.

According to her, due to Russia’s full-scale war against our country and other factors, this plan needed to be adjusted, so it was decided to update it for 2023-2024 to accelerate Ukraine’s economic integration into the European Union and provide access to the single market.

“Such access is partially already provided for in the agreement, such as internal market treatment in several sectors, and one of the top priorities for Ukraine is to obtain this treatment as soon as possible. In addition, the plan includes long-term steps that may take place outside the framework of the agreement,” she notes.

In addition, the expert draws attention to the fact that EU legislation is constantly evolving, so there is no point in copying what is already outdated, and the changes should be reflected in Ukraine’s European integration action plans.

The article was published on Unian in Ukrainian.