Stages of Ukraine's accession to the European Union and future prospects

Abstract

Introduction. Accession to the European Union provides a large number of economic, political, cultural and social benefits. Back in 1994, Ukraine expressed its aspiration to become a member of the EU and is still not a member of the EU. Today our country is a candidate for EU membership. The purpose of the paper is to consider the general stages and criteria of EU accession and to analyze Ukraine's path towards EU accession and future stages of accession. Results. Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union defines the geographical criterion for accession to the EU. Being the largest country in Europe by area, located in its eastern part, bordering the EU member states: Romania to the southwest, with Hungary, Slovakia and Poland to the west - Ukraine undoubtedly meets the geographical criterion. The Copenhagen criteria are: political, economic and membership criteria. As for the Copenhagen criteria, the answer to the question whether Ukraine meets them is currently different among international scholars. In our opinion, indeed, at the current stage of European integration Ukraine has already implemented a number of political conditions, in particular, partially fulfilled the requirement of the European Union to carry out a number of reforms and adapt Ukrainian legislation to the European one. As for the stages of accession to the EU, they are evaluation; negotiations; ratification. Usually, accession is preceded by years of cooperation with the European Union. To express its intention to do so, the state and the Community conclude an international agreement on in-depth cooperation, which provides for an active political dialogue. Negotiations are a process that involves the adoption of established EU legislation, preparations for its proper application and compliance, as well as the implementation of judicial, administrative, economic and other reforms necessary for the country to meet the conditions of accession, known as the accession criteria. After that, the last stage is ratification. Ukraine has successfully passed the first stage and received the status of a candidate state. Conclusion. On February 28, 2022, the President of Ukraine signed the application for Ukraine's membership in the EU - this marked a new stage for our country on the path of European integration. In this regard, close cooperation between Ukrainian officials and representatives of the European Union is currently underway to simplify and speed up the overall lengthy accession procedure. Ukraine will be able to achieve an appropriate level of economic development, high quality of life, make effective and accessible the provision and protection of human rights, implement all aspects of democracy, introduce energy security.