Kyiv, meanwhile, is pressing for more concrete economic help. Chentsov said Ukraine wants \u201cphased access to the EU Single Market linked to progress on reforms, deeper participation in EU programs and institutions, and swift progress on agreements like ACAA to facilitate trade.\u201d<\/p>\n
An Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products (ACAA) would allow the EU and Ukraine to recognize each other\u2019s manufacturing standards, making it easier for industrial goods to move across the border without additional checks.<\/p>\n
Ukraine is also asking for its businesses to be included in the Commission\u2019s strategic industrial dialogues on sectors such as vehicle manufacturing, steel and chemicals, Chentsov said, \u201cto better align our industries with EU value chains.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2266520408-1024x683.jpg\")
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Taras Kachka, Cyprus\u2019 Deputy Minister for European Affairs Marilena Raouna and EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos at a Brussels media conference on accession on March 17. | Thierry Monasse\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Such steps, he added, would bring \u201cimmediate economic benefits\u201d and strengthen investor confidence, while making Ukraine\u2019s path toward the EU beneficial for both sides even before membership.<\/p>\n
Road to EU membership<\/p>\n
While there is political goodwill behind Ukraine\u2019s accession bid, the timeline for actually joining the EU remains long \u2014 with no country having joined since Croatia in 2013. Brussels is working to speed up that timeline, with Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos warning<\/a> that accession must be faster given \u201cexternal destructive forces\u201d are targeting candidate countries. She has, however, cautioned<\/a> that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy\u2019s hopes of a 2027 entry are \u201cimpossible.\u201d<\/p>\n Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Taras Kachka told POLITICO last week that he expects formal negotiating \u201cclusters\u201d to open in the \u201ccoming weeks\u201d after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s successor, P\u00e9ter Magyar, takes office. Orb\u00e1n\u2019s election defeat earlier this month removed a major obstacle to progress for both Ukraine and Moldova, whose accession bid has been paired with Kyiv\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyiv, meanwhile, is pressing for more concrete economic help. Chentsov said Ukraine wants \u201cphased access to the EU…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":927704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7654],"tags":[768,10684,13490,33,6561,2000,299,36,1945,1824,5167,2441,60437,13491,809,5111,11854,48,23422,6861,6647,1218,167578,1201,657,1781,2601,335],"class_list":["post-927703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ukraine","tag-borders","tag-chemicals","tag-croatia","tag-elections","tag-enlargement","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-friedrich-merz","tag-germany","tag-manufacturing","tag-markets","tag-marta-kos","tag-moldova","tag-negotiations","tag-parliament","tag-peter-magyar","tag-rights","tag-roads","tag-single-market","tag-stability","tag-steel","tag-taras-kachka","tag-trade","tag-ukraine","tag-viktor-orban","tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","tag-war-in-ukraine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116491502753443497","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=927703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/927704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}