European Commission urges Ukraine to speed up reforms for 2028 EU talks goal

The package adopted on 4 November 2026 covers Montenegro, Albania, Moldova and Ukraine, the four leading candidates. For Ukraine, the Commission said Kyiv had opened four of the six negotiating clusters over the past year and met the conditions to open the remaining two. It called on Kyiv to focus on rule-of-law benchmarks, democratic institutions, public administration reform and an action plan on national minorities.

The Commission supported Ukraine's aim of concluding talks by the end of 2028 but called the target ambitious and expressed reservations about whether it could be met, citing Russia's war and the need for extensive reforms to democracy and the rule of law. A senior EU official said Ukraine must significantly accelerate reforms to meet the goal, the Copenhagen Post reported.

Rule-of-law gaps

The Commission urged Kyiv to "urgently and significantly step up the pace of the rule of law reforms." Its country report recorded "limited progress" on the rule-of-law roadmap and said the December 2025 10-point reform plan "remains mostly outstanding." No laws were adopted to significantly advance the anti-corruption legal framework, it said, and Ukraine made no progress in aligning legislation on serious and organised crime. Specialised anti-corruption institutions continued to operate "overall independently and effectively," the report said.

Benchmarks before chapters

The roadmap sets an expectation that Ukraine will meet interim rule-of-law benchmarks in the first half of 2027. Meeting key requirements in that period is necessary before negotiations in individual policy areas can be provisionally concluded, the Commission said. Ukraine's roadmap identifies seven of the 33 negotiating chapters that could be provisionally closed in 2027, while Moldova's identifies 25, Radio Svoboda reported. Moldova is due to meet the interim benchmarks in 2026, a year earlier.

Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos declined to give a completion date. "I cannot say that yet," she told Radio Svoboda, adding that timing depends on Ukraine's reforms and on decisions by member states. She said Ukraine may meet the interim benchmarks in 2027 and then close at least seven chapters.

Taras Kachka, Ukraine's ambassador to the EU, told Euronews that Kyiv still aims to complete negotiations in 2027 or 2028, and possibly sooner if reforms progress faster, because Russia's ongoing war gives Ukraine a greater sense of urgency than member states.

Admission is still political

Completing negotiations does not guarantee admission: every member state must approve a new country's entry. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said enlargement was also a security issue and called it "a direct investment in Europe's security," citing candidate countries' military expertise in drone warfare and modern battlefield technologies. Previous Eurobarometer polls found majorities in Italy, Hungary and the Czech Republic opposed Ukrainian membership, while respondents in Germany and France split into two nearly equal groups. Elections in France and Spain could bring governments more sceptical of the EU to power, the Copenhagen Post reported.

What happens next

Ukraine expects to open the final two clusters in December 2026, the Kyiv Independent reported.

The EU Council will consider the Commission's recommendations and decide on next steps. The roadmaps set indicative milestones and may be adjusted depending on progress.