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Ukraine has made significant progress in implementing reforms and is well prepared across nearly all areas of its European Union accession negotiations, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Taras Kachka said following the EU-Ukraine Intergovernmental Conference, UATV English reports.
Speaking to Ukrainian journalists after the official opening of Cluster 6 on external relations, Kachka said Ukraine’s strongest position extends across virtually all negotiation clusters.
“Ukraine is strong in all clusters. Perhaps the only exception is the environment chapter, where we have requested a significant number of transitional periods simply because this policy area had not developed sufficiently for many years. We are now catching up,” he said.
Kachka argued that Ukraine has demonstrated substantial progress in key rule-of-law reforms despite the challenges posed by Russia’s full-scale war.
“In the areas of the rule of law, anti-corruption and freedom of speech during wartime, we remain very strong. Regardless of the public debate, we are genuinely strong,” he said.
He highlighted the ongoing work of Ukraine’s High Qualification Commission of Judges and the High Council of Justice, noting that the country is undergoing what he described as a generational transformation of its judiciary.
“For the first time in 35 years of independence, Ukraine is experiencing a truly revolutionary generational renewal of its judiciary,” Kachka said, noting that competitions are underway to fill nearly 2,000 first-instance judicial positions.
He also pointed to the growing number of rulings issued by Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court as evidence of continued institutional progress.
According to Kachka, Ukraine remains on track to meet all accession requirements by 2027.
“We continue to believe that 2027 is a realistic timeline for fulfilling all requirements,” he said, adding that Ukraine is already functioning as a European state whose institutions increasingly operate according to European standards.
Kachka also described the opening of Cluster 6 as an important political milestone, saying it creates the foundation for deeper cooperation between Ukraine and the EU in foreign policy, security and defense.
“The accession negotiations with the European Union provide the foundation for many of the political achievements we see today, including security and defense unity with the EU, European financing of Ukraine’s defense needs, joint defense production, and the EU’s participation in the Coalition of the Willing,” he said.
Cluster 6 covers external relations, including common foreign and security policy, defense cooperation, trade policy, and controls on arms and dual-use goods. The European Union officially opened the cluster with Ukraine on July 14.
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