Kyiv, meanwhile, is pressing for more concrete economic help. Chentsov said Ukraine wants “phased access to the EU Single Market linked to progress on reforms, deeper participation in EU programs and institutions, and swift progress on agreements like ACAA to facilitate trade.”
An Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products (ACAA) would allow the EU and Ukraine to recognize each other’s manufacturing standards, making it easier for industrial goods to move across the border without additional checks.
Ukraine is also asking for its businesses to be included in the Commission’s strategic industrial dialogues on sectors such as vehicle manufacturing, steel and chemicals, Chentsov said, “to better align our industries with EU value chains.”
Such steps, he added, would bring “immediate economic benefits” and strengthen investor confidence, while making Ukraine’s path toward the EU beneficial for both sides even before membership.
Road to EU membership
While there is political goodwill behind Ukraine’s accession bid, the timeline for actually joining the EU remains long — with no country having joined since Croatia in 2013. Brussels is working to speed up that timeline, with Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos warning that accession must be faster given “external destructive forces” are targeting candidate countries. She has, however, cautioned that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hopes of a 2027 entry are “impossible.”
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Taras Kachka told POLITICO last week that he expects formal negotiating “clusters” to open in the “coming weeks” after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s successor, Péter Magyar, takes office. Orbán’s election defeat earlier this month removed a major obstacle to progress for both Ukraine and Moldova, whose accession bid has been paired with Kyiv’s.