Economic opportunities or integrational challenges — The case study of Ukraine

The following dissertation discusses the Europeanization process of Ukraine and the challenges it will pose. Despite notable changes during the last six years, it still needs to be apparent whether Ukraine has its place in European integration. In 2022, candidate status has officially been provided to Ukraine, and many politicians are urging a fast-track membership. Despite the fact that war caused massive decrease in economic output, the country still has its huge potential and after the conflict it is likely that it will not return to the Russian interest zone; Ukraine’s only option is the EU, but it requires preparation form both sides. The main idea for this research arose from the geopolitical challenge faced by the post- Soviet countries. The work argues that a security-related evaluation should be added alongside the economic readiness evaluation for the Eastern Partnership countries to understand their assessment better. As the possibility of disintegration is also a real threat and a valid option in the coming years, external and internal challenges of Ukraine has been discussed as well. One of the goals of the research was to assess the recently executed reforms. Some of the positive aspects are: restored anti-corruption institutions, proper land reform that increased Ukraine's agricultural competitiveness, banking system have been reformed, de-oligarchisation law was created. All in all, during the last 3-4 years, long-awaited fundamental changes have started in the country and Zelensky still has the opportunity to continue this his way on this path. Another important goal of the writing was to assess Ukraine’s economic situation based on an adapted version of Palánkai’s framework. Overall, the integration analysis has shown beyond any doubt that Ukraine is not ready for European integration at the moment, as it has not been able to meet most of the criteria and expectations. It is worth mentioning that there have been positive changes in several areas, such as price liberalisation, international ...