European Commission considers four out of seven steps on Ukraine’s readiness for negotiations on accession to EU fully implemented, - media
The European Commission assessed Ukraine’s readiness to negotiate accession to the European Union and believes that the country has fully fulfilled four of the seven criteria.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to Radio Liberty.
The journalists obtained an internal document of the European Commission with a report on Ukraine.
The following criteria are considered complete:
- implementation of legislation on the procedure for the selection of judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, in accordance with the recommendations of the Venice Commission;
- completion of the integrity check of candidates for members of the High Council of Justice and the 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.
At the same time, the other three criteria are accompanied by recommendations from the European Commission for further implementation.
In particular, further strengthening of the fight against corruption is not considered complete. As part of this step, the European Commission expected, in particular, the appointment of a new head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and the Director of the NABU (National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine).
"Ukraine should still adopt a law to increase the staffing of the NABU and remove from the law on the prevention of corruption the provisions that limit the powers of the NACP (National Agency on Corruption Prevention) to continue checking assets that have already passed the verification process, and limiting the powers of the NACP to inspect property acquired by declarants before entering the civil service," the European Commission said in a document.
As for limiting the excessive influence of oligarchs, which Brussels also expected from Kyiv, it is said that "Ukraine should still approve the law on lobbying in accordance with European standards."
With regard to the reform of legislation on national minorities, in accordance with the recommendations of the Venice Commission, it is recalled that not all of them have been implemented. The European Commission notes the need to implement the remaining comments mentioned "in the opinion of June 2023 and its subsequent opinion of October 2023, in particular by amending the laws on the state language, media and education."
