The EU will continue to closely monitor issues related to the independence of anti-corruption bodies, judicial reform, and respect for fundamental rights in Ukraine, while recognizing the need for certain restrictions associated with martial law.
EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarina Mathernova made this statement in an interview with Ukrinform.
“We will be monitoring progress and the independence of anticorruption bodies just like we are doing it right now. I mean, this is a question of anticorruption and rule of law, which is, of course, part and parcel of cluster one,” the diplomat said.
She noted that the first cluster also covers issues related to market fundamentals, the economy, statistics, financial control, and the functioning of democratic institutions—all aspects of a modern democratic state based on a market economy.
Commenting on the question of whether the EU can strike a balance between the strict requirements of the first cluster of accession negotiations and the practical realities of a country engaged in a full-scale war, Mathernova noted “amazing that a country at war that is fighting for its own national survival is actually reforming its state, its institutions and its legal order,” and that Europe does not take this for granted.
