Volodymyr Zelenskyi signed three European integration laws: on national minorities, increasing the staff of NABU and checking the property of officials that they acquired before their appointment.
This is noted in the cards of laws No. 10203-1, No. 10262 and No. 10288-1 on the website of the Verkhovna Rada.
The President emphasized that by the end of 2023, Ukraine will make all the decisions necessary for the start of negotiations on Ukraineʼs accession to the EU.
Law No. 10203-1 provides for an increase in the staff of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau by three hundred people by 2026.
Law No. 10262 allows the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption to re-examine the assets and property of officials (and their family members) that they acquired before being appointed to public office.
Law No. 10288-1 gives private universities the right to freely choose the language of instruction, which is the official language of the EU. It is about teaching one, several or all disciplines, performing individual tasks and conducting control measures in the language of the national minority.
Representatives of national minorities of Ukraine will also be able to obtain basic and specialized secondary education in their own languages. The exception is the subjects Ukrainian language, Ukrainian literature, history of Ukraine, as well as the defense of Ukraine.
When will we become a member of the EU?
This will happen only after Ukraine fulfills all requirements and fully implements all European standards.
There are various examples in the history of EU enlargement. Finland applied in 1992, and already in 1995 it became a member of the European Union. Poland applied in 1994 and joined the EU 10 years later. The last country to join the European Union is Croatia. It applied in 2003 and became a new member of the EU in 2013.
There are also countries that still remain candidates for admission. These are four Balkan countries: Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. Turkey has the same status. But in all these countries the process is stalled. Turkey does not meet the requirements of the EU at all and shows no desire to join it. In Serbia, the majority of the population does not want to join the European Union, and the country itself has close ties with Russia. Albania has not even started accession negotiations, and in Montenegro, with the change of government, the foreign policy orientation is also changing — sometimes towards the EU, then towards Serbia. North Macedonia is doing the most to join the European Union, but its progress is being blocked by its neighbors. First Greece demanded to change the name — and the Macedonians did it, now Bulgaria demands from North Macedonia to recognize that its people and language have Bulgarian roots and come from Bulgaria.
The most important thing is that after receiving the candidate status, everything will completely depend on the Ukrainian authorities. It will receive a clear list of reforms that must be implemented, and society will have the opportunity to control this process. In addition, the candidate status will mean access to financial funds of the European Union — in fact, the EU itself will provide money for reforms. One thing can be said for sure: the sooner Ukraine reforms, the sooner it can become a member of the EU.