Surmounting of the impediments on the way to Ukraine`s accession to the European Union

Abstract

The paper highlights the topic of European integration. Ukraine has decided on the vector of foreign policy, setting the goal of integration into the European political, economic and legal space with the aim of gaining membership in the European Union. Namely, accession to the EU is a strong incentive for development and improvement of many aspects of the functioning of our state. In 2022, during an extremely challenging period for Ukraine, a qualitatively new stage of European integration began – Ukraine received the EU candidate status, which made the prospects of joining the European community feasible, became a catalyst for further reforms, and an incentive for the authorities and citizens of the country. The EU candidate status has opened up a number of vectors for our country to carry out reforms in various areas. These are primarily structural changes, shift away from the consumer economy model, improvement of production efficiency, expansion of access to new technologies, new investments, etc. This is the country`s achievement of a new level of development comparable to EU member states. Six fundamental values of the European Union – supremacy of law, respect for human dignity, democracy, freedom, equality and respect for human rights – these are the most vital worldview principles, which are close and understandable to our society – to every Ukrainian. They exactly unite us with Europeans more than any laws or agreements. The EU enlargement process opens new strategic prospects for Ukraine and additional opportunities to deepen the European integration policy of our state. However, at the same time, at the current stage of Ukraine's relations with the European Union, there are many problems that must be eliminated, in order to become a member of the EU. In this paper, we considered Ukraine's path to European integration, highlighting the opinions of political and public figures regarding the importance of our state for European space. It was noted which criteria for EU membership exist, it was also analyzed which of them Ukraine has already fulfilled. Attention was focused on the reforms that should be carried out in order to obtain EU membership. It was clarified what are the obstacles to the European integration of Ukraine and it was indicated the ways to overcome them.