ON THE ADAPTATION OF UKRAINIAN LEGISLATION TO THE ACQUIS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Abstract

The article considers the issues of adapting Ukrainian legislation to the law (acquis) of the European Union. It is noted that the process of approximating the content of Ukrainian legislation to the EU acquis began on March 1, 1998 (with the entry into force of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between Ukraine and the European Communities and their Member States) and continues to this day. The problems of application of the terms «adaptation» and «harmonization» both at the regulatory level and in legal literature to denote the process of bringing the content of the provisions of Ukrainian legislation into line with the EU acquis are analyzed. The issue of conducting an assessment (screening) of the status of implementation of EU law provisions into national legislation has been investigated. A number of systemic problems are outlined that hinder the full and rapid implementation of the provisions of the EU acquis into Ukrainian legislation, including the impossibility of making the necessary amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine during the legal regime of martial law.
It is noted that in order to ensure that Ukraine fulfills the «legislative» criterion for EU membership, it is of urgent importance to develop and maintain an up-to-date national Plan for the Adaptation of Legislation to the EU Acquis. After all, the List of Ukrainian legislative acts in priority areas of adaptation to the EU Acquis, approved by Law № 1629-IV, does not currently constitute a regulatory basis for lawmaking activity in this area. To denote the process of bringing national legislation (the legal norms enshrined therein) into line with the provisions of the EU acquis, it is proposed to use the term «adaptation», and the unification to pan-European national standards and technical regulations – «harmonization».