According to the Treaty of the European Union, any country in Europe can become an EU member state. For this, it must respect and promote democratic values while its citizens (and that of the EU and its member states) must support the aspirant’s accession to the Union. It also needs to align with EU rules and standards through the implementation and adaptation of a wide array of norms, divided into 35 chapters of the acquis.
In 2022, Ukraine became an EU candidate state. On Nov.8th, 2023 the European Commission (EC) recommended that the Union commence accession negotiations with Ukraine. This means that the country will eventually join the European system of security and border management. Accordingly, its borders will become EU’s external and internal borders.
To complete this process, Ukraine must align its system of Integrated Border Management (IBM) with that of the EU. It should also adapt it to the unique challenges with responses outside of the EU regulation’s scope.
Membership negotiations with Ukraine that are likely to begin shortly, as well as the EC reports on the candidate countries’ progress are based on the acquis chapters. IBM is fully covered by Chapter 24. Freedom, Justice and Security. Meanwhile, the following chapters partially heed the matter: Chapter 29 Customs Union, Chapter 14 Transport, Chapter 21 Trans-European Transport Network (TENs), Chapter 22. Regional Politics and Coordination of Structural Investments, Chapter 23. Judicial System and Fundamental Rights
For the EC, Chapter 24. Freedom, Justice and Security serves as fundamental when assessing the country’s readiness to begin negotiations. It encompasses 16 pages, i.e. 10% of the total report’s volume; two of those pages are IBM-focused.
This part of the report both directly and indirectly suggests that Ukraine lacks 11 elements of IBM’s effective implementation as well as alignment of border policies with the EU
The report especially heeds points 1 and 11 mentioned in the Chapter’s abstract. Most of the recommendations are encompassed by the current Ukraine’s IBM Strategy until 2025 and the Action Plan for 2023-2025. Some of them have been at least partially implemented – though the implementation of declared steps requires additional analysis (see Chapter III).
Besides, the EC’s IBM-related position and recommendations on the country’s EU membership progress also need to be analysed and reviewed in terms of whether they correspond to the EU’s IBM policies and practices.
To identify the steps necessary to further align Ukraine the IBM to the fullest, the following must be analysed:
- The correlation between the Strategy, the Action Plan, the EC’s recommendations from the first enlargement package Report dated Nov. 8th, 2023 and strategic EU documents
- The Action Plan’s technical feasibility
This will enable us to answer these questions:
- Does the Strategy and the Action Plan contain goals aimed at fulfilling all EC’s recommendations in the IBM domain?
- Are there any additional strategic goals and objectives that were not included in the current strategic documents or the EC’s report?
- Is Ukraine able to achieve the IBM Strategy and Action Plan’s goals and objectives?
Learn more in the analytical note “Integrated Border Management in Ukraine in the Context of EU Accession” (download in PDF format).
Project “EU Support in Strengthening Integrated Border Management in Ukraine – Resilience (EU4IBM-Resilience)”. Funded by the European Union and implemented by the ICMPD
