Darvas et al. (2024) argue that whether and when Ukraine accedes to the European Union will depend greatly on how and when its war with Russia ends and post-war reconstruction starts, and how the EU handles issues of governance, security, migration, trade, investment, the energy transition, decarbonisation and the EU budget. The enlargement process is likely to overlap with post-war reconstruction, increasing the EU’s influence in fostering Ukraine’s institutional development. Ukrainian leaders will have strong incentives to comply with the accession criteria, which the EU should use astutely to create a better-functioning economy and public institutions. Both Ukraine and the EU would benefit from progressive integration of the country into EU policies, alongside the formal accession negotiations1. However there are idenfifed several problems that clearly show that integration mills make landscape of Ukraine accession to the European Union full of fears for both parties. Several authors and policy analysts, incl. Darvas et al. (2024) highlight, i.a. that although Ukraine might meet the rule-of-law and governance acquis on the possible date of accession, this may backslide later, which makes the landscape even more complicated in long perspective. ... Czytaj więcej