Скачать или смотреть Lessons from Ukraine's anti-corruption reform reversal: Civil society driving Ukraine's EU path

11 September 2025
Policy Dialogue

Speakers:
Clemens Mueller, Policy Officer, DG ENEST
Mattia Nelles, CEO & Co-Founder Deutsch-Ukrainisches Buro
Mykhailo Zhernakov, Executive Director, DEJURE Foundation
Olena Prokopenko, Senior Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
Stanislav Lyachynskyy, Country Director, Democracy Reporting International Ukraine
Yelena Drobotova, Prosecutor of the Second Division of the Department for Procedural Guidance, Public Prosecution, and Representation in Court of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office

Moderator: Amanda Paul, Senior Policy Analyst, European Policy Centre

On 22 July 2025, Ukraine's parliament adopted a controversial bill potentially weakening anti-corruption safeguards and undermining the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO). The move sparked Ukraine's first major wartime anti-government protests, led largely by young citizens aged 15 to 23 which, ultimately, pushed the government to reverse course and restore the independence of anti-corruption bodies. The protests underscored Ukraine's civic resilience in times of war and reinforced the importance of conditionality in the EU accession process.

This hybrid Policy Dialogue adressed questions, such as: What does the July 2025 reform reversal reveal about the state of Ukraine’s democracy and EU-Ukraine relations in wartime? How can Ukraine’s civil society continue holding the government accountable and shape long-term reform? What lessons does this episode offer for the EU’s approach to conditionality in candidate countries, and for partners?