Identified by the government as a priority area for sectoral integration into the EU, digitalisation of Ukraine’s economy (in accordance with European and international standards) demands not only the approximation of Ukrainian regulations with the rules of The EU Digital Single Market, but a number of serious technological steps, information campaigns with business and the public and fulfilment of the range of special requirements which will allow to catch up with EU member states in the level of digital development. Nevertheless, the reward for this kind of efforts is evident. According to t ..read more

  The World Values Survey* initiated in 1981 within years became a powerful instrument of progress assessment for each country-participant as well as a helpful tool of geopolitical planning. For Ukraine this large-scale project has never been more relevant then nowadays, showing both Ukraine’s readiness to share European values and a significant gap on the way of European integration. It does not only allow to track the progress of Ukrainian society in key issues of value orientations, as well as to compare with the EU and the Eastern Partnership countries, but also can potentially modify ..read more

Recent Ukraine-EU summit and re-affirmed mutual commitments between Ukraine and the European Union are important political achievements for President Volodymyr Zelenskyi for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it is critical evidence for the Zelenskyi’s core supporters that Ukraine’s European aspirations and latest progress (like visa-free regime) are not overturned by the EU. According to the national opinion poll, which was conducted by the Democratic Initiative Foundation in the second half of August, 71.7% of the respondents who back president’s party “Servant of the People”, believe ..read more

The 2020 constitutional amendment process in Russia is truly a remarkable manifestation of using quite bizarre legal drafting methodology to enhance the constitutional reform. Unlike previous endeavours, the Law of the Russian Federation on Amendment to the Constitution of Russian Federation ‘On Improving Regulation of Certain Aspects of Organisation and Functioning of Public Authority’ was developed as a vague, irrational piece of legal text. One does not have to be a lawyer or an even a linguist to understand that the latest alterations in the Constitution of Russia are an example of all dec ..read more

Ukraine retains the Soviet legacy in many areas. This is especially noticeable in the law enforcement and national security sectors. The main national security actor — the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) — still operates on the model of the Soviet KGB. It is evidently in several dimensions. First, the agency has never been reformed, except losing the authority to conduct foreign intelligence operations in 2005 — this function was assigned to the specially created body, the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine. Second, the number of SSU’s employees is incredibly high — nearly 27 thousand ..read more

The year 2019 witnessed new developments in the geography of Ukraine’s trade in goods. Although the official annual statistics has not been released yet, trends have been very clear already, and they are not fully in line with prior expectations. There are three major changes. First, Russia lost its leading position among individual countries – trade partners of Ukraine. Second, China has become the leading partner instead. Third, the trade in goods with the EU slowed considerably. Below we consider these developments in more detail. The reduction of Russia’s role in Ukraine’s foreign trade in ..read more

Recently published Global Gender Gap Report 2019 shows the ranking of gender equality in the countries of the world in which Ukraine ranked 59th out of 153. Compared to the previous year, the indicator has improved significantly (in 2018 it was 65th). However, Ukraine does not reach the average gender equality level in Europe. What prevents Ukraine from approaching European standards and what steps could help to improve the situation? If to compare Signing of the Association Agreement with the EU required that individual programs at national level were aligned with EU programmatic documents, s ..read more

When the Ukrainian Parliament adopted the Electricity Market Law back in April 2017 it was largely welcomed by the international experts. Despite all minor flaws, the Law more or less copied the Third Package approach, promising free competition and departure from the then existing “single buyer” model. The electricity market reform was to be carried out quickly (too quickly, many argued). However, Regulator, Government and Parliament did its homework and by the end of 2018, the regulatory framework necessary for a liberal market to existing was in place. And indeed, as of 1 January 2019, a co ..read more

New political realia of contemporary Ukraine call for revising a number of novelties introduced during several previous years in the public administration sphere. One of them is the parliament’s decision adopted in November 2017 to amend legislation, specifically to exclude heads and deputy heads of local state administrations from the list of civil servants. In order to justify this opinion, let us look back at the history of this issue. At different stages of development of civil service in Ukraine, matters pertaining to the status of heads of local (oblast and raion) state administrations u ..read more

For years, Ukraine and the European Union (EU) have been hesitantly cooperating on a range of common policies, and the process has arguably been assisting Ukraine to be gradually integrating into the EU-bound structures. As of now, the cooperation, however, shows plenty of inefficiencies and drawbacks, leaving space for multiple improvements even within the existing legal framework of AA/DCFTA. While the framework-linked achievements in trade and other economic sector are undeniable, its geostrategic aspect is still vaguely detectable. Evidently, if a partnership is declared by the two sides ..read more