The European Commission's new plan for Ukraine's EU membership talks sets no joining date and asks Kyiv to finish only a handful of policy areas in 2027, Politico reported. Moldova, which applied alongside Ukraine but is not at war, is expected to move more than three times faster. Brussels wants Kyiv to speed up court and anti-corruption reforms that its parliament must pass while fighting Russia.

Russia keeps striking Ukrainian cities and power plants, and the country is rebuilding its laws to European standards at the same time. EU rules do not bar a country at war from joining. Yet a member at war raises hard questions about borders, security, and the mutual defense duties EU states owe each other. That makes every month of slower reform a widening gap between Ukraine and the neighbors on the same path.

Seven chapters for Ukraine, 25 for Moldova

Countries joining the EU must align their laws with EU rules in dozens of policy areas, called chapters, and close each one. The Commission's roadmap lists seven that Ukraine could provisionally close in 2027. Education and culture come first, in the first half of the year. Intellectual property, employment, industrial policy, science and research, external relations, and foreign and security policy follow in the second half.

Moldova could close nine chapters in the first half of 2027 and 16 more by year's end, Yevropeiska Pravda, Ukrainska Pravda's EU-affairs site, reported. Both countries applied in 2022 and opened talks on the same day in June 2024. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has argued they should keep moving in step. “Moldova and Ukraine are certainly stronger when we move forward on this track together,” he said on 26 October.

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No date for Kyiv, a timetable only for Montenegro

Presenting the package on 4 November, EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos confirmed it sets no date for Ukraine's accession, Interfax-Ukraine reported. The roadmaps run only to the end of 2027. Ukraine could close up to seven chapters if it meets interim rule-of-law benchmarks, and she called its chances high. The plan describes itself as a “living document” that can add chapters if reforms move faster.

Montenegro, a small Balkan country, is the exception. It has closed 21 chapters and could close the rest by the end of this year, the Commission said. Brussels envisages June 2027 as the target for signing its accession treaty.

Courts first, while the war strains parliament

No chapter can close before Ukraine meets key rule-of-law requirements in the first half of 2027. The Commission admits these reforms take extensive consultations, time, and money. It also notes that the war places extraordinary demands on Ukraine's government and parliament. Kyiv and Brussels set up a joint task force in October to speed those benchmarks up.

Ukraine's ambassador to the EU, Taras Kachka, sees no lag behind Moldova, only different assessments of how ready each chapter is. He put the burden on lawmakers. “The success of our negotiations now depends 90% on the speed and pro-European commitment of parliament,” he told Radio Svoboda. The Commission's annual report had already flagged that Ukraine's parliament slowed its lawmaking over the past year, though it also found that reforms have recently picked up pace.

The two countries still share one obstacle. Hungary has held up the last two blocks of talks for both, and they are now expected to open in December, the Kyiv Independent reported. Kachka told Euronews that Budapest has raised no new substantive objections and only wants more time to study the documents. Moldovan President Maia Sandu has argued that holding Moldova back does nothing to help Ukraine.

Ukraine is ready to open all remaining rounds of EU membership talks but must speed up reforms its parliament keeps putting off, the European Commission said in its annual report on 4 November. Brussels backs Kyiv’s goal of finishing the talks by the end of 2028. It also found that no law passed in the past year significantly strengthened Ukraine’s anti-corruption framework.

Russia’s war has made Ukraine dependent on foreign money to pay salaries, pensions, and repairs while its own revenue goes to defense. Next year’s financing gap runs to tens of billions of dollars, and Brussels ties more aid to reforms. That makes the speed of Kyiv’s legislature a question of cash as well as membership. In October, lawmakers passed a tax on cheap foreign parcels only on the third attempt, to unlock a €3.7 billion EU payment. The EU wants reforms before it pays more.

Every remaining cluster ready, a deadline that needs speed

Accession talks are split into six clusters of chapters. Ukraine opened four of them over the past year, and the Commission assessed the remaining two as ready to open. Brussels supports Kyiv’s aim to close negotiations by the end of 2028, but “it is important that Ukraine continues to accelerate the pace of reforms” to get there, the Commission stated.

Moldova, which applied alongside Ukraine, got a different message. Brussels urged it to keep its current pace and called its goal of finishing talks by early 2028 ambitious but achievable. “Albania, Moldova and Ukraine could join the European Union in the coming years if they sustain the reform efforts,” Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said.

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The 119-page report grades each chapter. Ukraine has a good level of preparation in energy and in foreign, security and defense policy, where it made “very good progress.” It is at an early stage on the free movement of workers, social policy and employment, and its future payments into the EU budget.

Ahead of the release, Ukrainian news site Liga reported, citing a single unnamed Foreign Ministry source, that the Commission would raise Ukraine’s readiness in 10 chapters and see progress in all of them. The published report explicitly raises the overall level only in the fight against corruption, and records limited progress in several chapters.

A parliament that slowed down, then turned to reforms when EU money was at stake

Parliament passed 133 laws between September 2025 and September 2026, at a slower pace than the year before, the report notes. It calls the slowdown in legislative decision-making “a point of concern.” Since the end of the summer, Kyiv has focused more on reforms and on meeting the conditions attached to the EU’s Ukraine Facility and the Ukraine Support Loan, two programs that pay out in step with reforms.

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Several votes the Commission needs are still waiting. A new anti-corruption strategy for 2026–2030 awaits adoption by parliament. The terms of two members of the High Council of Justice, the body that governs Ukraine’s judges, expired in August, and the report urges lawmakers to fill the seats “without delay.” Two seats on the Constitutional Court that parliament must fill have stayed empty since it failed to appoint judges in October 2025. Why lawmakers keep stalling bills they later pass, the report does not say.

Anti-corruption agencies work, the laws stall

The Commission credits Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies with a better grade. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, and the High Anti-Corruption Court brought more high-level corruption cases to investigation, trial, and final conviction, reaching top officials and judges. Yet “no laws were adopted to significantly advance the anti-corruption legal framework,” the report states, calling the slow adoption of the reforms Brussels recommended “a major concern, requiring urgent action.”

The 10 priority reforms Kyiv agreed with Brussels on 10 December 2025 “remain mostly outstanding.” Progress on the rule of law roadmap was limited, and law enforcement reforms were slow, with many delayed. Ukrainian watchdogs rated anti-corruption progress as limited in their own report in October.

These reforms decide when Ukraine can finish. No chapter can close until EU governments confirm that Kyiv has met interim benchmarks on the rule of law and democratic institutions, Interfax-Ukraine reported. In October, Ukraine and the Commission set up a joint task force to speed up those benchmarks.