While there is broad political consensus in Ukraine regarding its decades-long orientation toward the EU and significant progress has been made in the accession process despite the war, adapting to wartime conditions as well as capacity and coordination deficits remain critical obstacles. Strategically, perceptions in Germany and Ukraine still differ:
Ukrainian stakeholders primarily emphasise the security-related and geopolitical benefits of EU accession, German stakeholders focus particularly on normative, rule-of-law and integration-policy aspects. At the same time, both sides recognise the strategic value of integration as well as Germany’s key role as mediator, supporter and guarantor of reform implementation.
The policy paper developed within the framework of the project “Pathways to Progress: Germany–Ukraine Dialogues on Rule of Law for EU Accession” first traces Ukraine’s rapprochement with the EU as well as the German perspective on it across four phases. In addition, Civil Network OPORA and IEP conducted and evaluated a total of 33 interviews with key German and Ukrainian stakeholders from politics and civil society. The aim was to examine how both countries perceive one another in the context of Ukraine’s EU accession process, which priorities they set and which expectations, interests and challenges they associate with it.
The “Pathways to Progress” project was funded through the project “Strengthening Ukraine's EU Alignment in the Rule of Law” (3*E4U) of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the Federal Foreign Office.
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