New policy paper

Dr Hanna Vasilevich has published a policy paper, "Ukraine as a Case of Conditional Europeanisation: Minority Legislation Reform under EU Accession Pressure," in the edited volume Minority Policies and Governance in Europe, published by the Institute of Central Europe.

The paper analyses Ukraine's minority legislation reforms undertaken after obtaining EU candidate status in 2022. It argues that these reforms are best understood as a case of conditional Europeanisation, where external incentives associated with the EU accession process have accelerated legislative change even under the extraordinary circumstances of Russia's full-scale invasion.

The analysis highlights both the achievements and the challenges of this process. While Ukraine has made substantial progress in aligning its legislation with European standards, the paper shows that legislative convergence alone does not guarantee effective implementation. It discusses the role of wartime governance, differentiated treatment of minority groups, consultation mechanisms, and the continuing importance of institutional capacity for translating legal reforms into sustainable minority governance.

More broadly, the paper suggests that Ukraine offers valuable lessons for understanding how EU enlargement policy shapes minority protection in times of geopolitical crisis and what this may mean for future candidate countries.