UA
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DEby Volodymyr Larin
As we enter February 2026, the narrative surrounding Ukraine’s accession to the European Union has transitioned from the historic Western support and attention of 2022, to the rigorous, technical reality of the Cluster-phase of EU integration, during which Ukraine’s legal, economic, and societal standards are compared with the EU’s legislative standards on a cluster-by-cluster basis. The initial relief after the conclusion of Ukraine’s screening process in late 2025, has now been replaced with the anxiety surrounding the speed at which Ukraine’s legislative alignment to EU standards can be achieved.
The commitment for Ukraine’s EU accession from both Brussels and Kyiv remains strong, with Ukraine’s President Zelensky recently declaring that “technically, we will be ready in 2027” and President von der Leyen’s prioritization of full energy and sectoral integration by “early 2027”: A timeline that has gained more credibility now that the Trump administration had drafted a January 1, 2027, accession date as a cornerstone security guarantee in its newly drafted Ukraine peace framework. However, the process of integration is entering its most uncertain stage, due to the risk of institutional stalling by both the EU and Ukraine. To ensure that 2026 is a year of affirmation of the 2027 goal, civil society must pivot Ukraine’s judiciary toward legal accountability of cluster negotiation, push the EU towards technical sectoral integration of Ukraine’s institutions, and ultimately promote Ukraine’s seat at the European tables to facilitate de facto EU community membership.
The State of Accession: February 2026
Ukraine has successfully cleared the screening of its national legislation in December 2025, a two-year-long process that compared thousands of pages of Ukrainian law against the EU’s, the acquis communautaire, ie., the collection of common rights that constitute the body of EU law, which is incorporated into the legal systems of EU Member States. Ukraine’s successful clearing of the screening process means that European institutions are confident enough that Ukraine’s legislative alignment with the EU’s acquis is feasible enough so as to begin subsequent negotiation efforts.
The EU’s acquis presently consists of 35 chapters, which form the basis of the accession negotiations for each EU candidate country. These 35 chapters of the EU’s legislation are grouped into six clusters during the negotiation process: 1. Fundamentals, 2. Internal Market,
3. Competitiveness and internal growth, 4. Green agenda and sustainable connectivity,
5. Resources, agriculture, & cohesion, and 6. External relations. In order to conclude the negotiation process, Ukraine must legally match the legislative standards of each of the six clusters and thus all 35 chapters of the EU’s acquis.
Under the EU’s “Fundamentals First” principle, no other chapters of the negotiation can be closed until Ukraine demonstrates a “solid, irreversible track record” in judicial reform, anti-corruption, and democratic institutions, as required by the EU acquis chapters included with the Fundamentals Cluster 1. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for European integration, Taras Krachka, recently stated in a presentation to the EU Council’s Working Group on Enlargement that the key priorities for 2026 in Ukraine’s integration lie in “the completion of judicial reform, a large-scale renewal of the judiciary and further strengthening of anti-corruption infrastructure”, all of which directly match up to the EU’s acquis chapters included within the Fundamentals cluster.
This demonstrates that the Ukrainian government is primarily focusing its resources on Cluster 1 implementation, as the cluster which holds the most “weight” when convincing the EU Council member states to conclude the Cluster-phase as a whole, but also the one which requires the most effort and attention for the Ukrainian government. What this means for Ukrainian integration advocacy, is that we ought to focus on Ukraine’s reformation of its judicial system and anti-corruption infrastructure as a top priority in order to see accelerated EU integration.
The 2027 Technical Deadline as a Point of Advocacy
Ukraine aims to have all six negotiation clusters formally opened in the first half of 2026. The EU has already frontloaded this by sharing informal guidance on clusters 1 (Fundamentals), 2 (Internal Market), and 6 (External Relations). A critical March 3rd meeting of European affairs ministers in Cyprus is then intended to provide the requirements for the final three clusters, thus opening all 35 chapters for negotiation simultaneously.
President Zelensky’s declaration that Ukraine will be “technically ready” for EU integration by 2027 is surely an ambitious statement and has caught surprise amongst many officials and journalists worldwide. However when put into the technical context of EU integration, what the president means by technically ready, is that Ukraine’s government is optimistic about meeting the necessary technical requirements needed to close all six of the negotiating clusters. In this context, being technically ready for EU legislative alignment by 2027 may be feasible if the Cluster phase is closed by January 1 2027, albeit, it is notably different from full legal and political integration.
The 2027 technical deadline is thus increasingly viewed as a launchpad for a more creative “technical accession” strategy. Recent reports from the Financial Times and Politico indicate that Brussels is seriously discussing a “membership-lite” model. Informally dubbed “reverse enlargement” by French President Macron, it would grant Ukraine a de facto seat at the EU table and partial decision-making powers as early as 2027, even before the final legal grind of all 35 chapters is concluded. This proposal, also explored by European Pravda, suggests that Ukraine could join politically first and take on a legal obligation to finish reforms afterwards, effectively reversing the traditional merit-based timeline.
Such a shift demonstrates that the European Union is willing to step beyond its own historical red lines to secure Ukraine’s European future, as this model serves both as a security guarantee within a broader peace framework, and a mechanism to bypass persistent internal blockages. For policy advocates, this means the push must now move beyond general support and toward specific, sectoral integration into EU institutions and frameworks to make this staged membership an irreversible reality.
Mobilizing the Ukrainian legislature and civil society to accelerate our closing of the six clusters is an ambitious task for the 10-month March-December 2026 window, albeit technically feasible with sufficient pressure. However, the actual legal closing of each of the six negotiating clusters remains fraught with political hurdles in the European Council, where the veto powers of some EU Council member states continues to threaten the timeline.
3 Points of Advocacy for the 2027 Strategic Vision
The grind of negotiations requires civil society to move beyond advocacy and become a technical partner capable of navigating the exhaustive process of aligning Ukraine’s domestic laws with EU standards. To accelerate integration, Ukrainian and Brussels civil society must adapt their integration timelines & priorities with the discussions currently going on in Brussels:
- Direct Technical and Oversight Support for the Fundamentals
To validate President Zelenskyy’s goal of being “technically ready” by January 1, 2027, civil society must provide the human capital the government lacks. By offering direct legislative support and oversight for judicial reform and anti-corruption infrastructure, organizations can ensure that new laws are technically compatible with the acquis from day one. This ensures that Cluster 1, the “weightiest” requirement for convincing the EU Council, is closed with the “solid, irreversible track record” required to end the cluster phase.
2. Advocacy for Rapid Sectoral Integration
Following President von der Leyen’s prioritization of sectoral integration, civil society must push for membership-in-all-but-name in the EU’s backbone economic sectors. This involves advocating for immediate inclusion into the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), full electricity market coupling (ENTSO-E), Digital Single Market alignment (DSA/DMA), and the ACAA agreement before the formal legal closing of all clusters. Such technical integration creates an economic point-of-no-return that bypasses the vetocracy and persistent political blockages of individual member states in the European Council.
3. Promotion of the Reverse Enlargement Model
Advocates should champion President Macron’s “membership-lite” or “reverse enlargement” proposal, which suggests granting Ukraine a seat at the EU table and partial decision-making powers as early as 2027. By pushing for this model, civil society supports a strategy where Ukraine joins politically first and concludes the legal grind afterwards. This serves as a vital security guarantee and transforms staged membership into an irreversible reality, effectively bypassing the traditional merit-based timeline to secure Ukraine’s European future.
Ultimately, the most feasible path forward for Ukraine’s accession lies in a structured process of gradual cluster negotiation and closure, where the primary objective remains the fulfillment of the “Fundamentals First” principle. As argued by Taras Krachka, prioritizing comprehensive judicial and anti-corruption reforms is the most important step to ensuring the successful closure of Cluster 1, which acts as the legal gatekeeper for all subsequent chapters. However, as President von der Leyen has emphasized, active advocacy for sectoral economic integration into frameworks such as the Single European Payment Act (SEPA), the EU’s electrical grids (ENTSO-E), the Digital Single Market (DSA/DMA), and the Agreement on Conformity Assessment (ACAA) is economically vital, as these steps ensure that Ukraine remains technically integrated into the European economy even as the formal political process continues, preventing the timeline from slowing to a halt. Finally, while a “membership-lite” model is unprecedented for any integrating country, the extraordinary change in urgency and Ukraine’s deep political integration with the West make a seat at the table a theoretically feasible goal to advocate for in order to bypass persistent internal blockages and secure an irreversible European future.