Purpose
The project is undergoing changes due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A deeper understanding of this process and its outcomes will help to further both the objectives of the Agreement and international cooperation more generally.
In 2014, the EU and Ukraine signed an Association Agreement that aims to bring Ukraine closer to the EU. This international treaty is the basis of political and economic cooperation between the two partners. It contains a number of EU rules that Ukraine promised to introduce and enforce “at home”. Taking over these rules, however, is often expensive and requires far-reaching reforms in Ukraine. The punctual and complete adoption and application of the rules is thus a major challenge for the country.
Project description
Read more on the project's webpage
This interdisciplinary project combines political science and law perspectives to analyze how Ukraine and the EU deal with this situation. In particular, it looks at whether and how the two partners re-adjust the content of the original agreement and with which results. In a first step, the project will provide an in-depth, objective legal assessment of how well Ukrainian laws meet the requirements of the Association Agreement. It will also study how the EU reacts to cases where Ukraine did not adopt the necessary laws as promised. In a second step, the project will look at whether Ukraine applies the new rules properly in practice and what the EU does if this is not the case.
The project will be carried out with partners from the Ukrainian Catholic University, based in L’viv, and other Ukrainian cooperators. It will thus strengthen both the research capacity in Ukraine and the expertise on Ukraine in Norway. The findings will enhance our understanding of what happens with international treaties after they have been concluded. This will help to ensure that promises will not only be made by states but will be kept, which often entails better living conditions for a state's population.