The Fundamental cluster is the cornerstone of EU accession negotiations: it is opened first and closed last. It is also the most politically sensitive cluster within the EU negotiation framework, as it covers democracy, the rule of law, and public administration. The quality of reforms in this area determines not only the pace of negotiations, but also public trust in the state.

The Center of Policy and Legal Reforms has prepared an analytical brief based on the European Commission’s 2025 Enlargement Report. The experts analyzed not only the European Commission’s official assessments and recommendations, but also those priorities that remain outside the formal EU documents yet are critically important for completing the local self-government reform.

The Commission acknowledges the effectiveness of multi-level governance during the full-scale war, but also identifies systemic challenges, including the lack of final delineation of powers, limited autonomy of communities, and legal uncertainty.

To complete the local self-government reform, Ukraine needs to adopt a comprehensive legislative package. Key priorities include:

• amendments to the Constitution to fully entrench the autonomy of local self-government;

• a framework law on the administrative-territorial structure;

• a law on community self-government granting communities the status of public law legal entities;

• corresponding amendments to the Civil, Budget, and Tax Codes.

In addition, the following steps are critically important:

• finalizing draft legislation on the delineation of powers between levels of public governance;

• adopting a law on associations of local self-government bodies that defines their mandatory role in policymaking;

• introducing an administrative fee as a tool to strengthen the financial capacity of communities.

The analytical brief outlines the key challenges and concrete steps Ukraine must take to transform EU integration requirements into a systemic trajectory toward accession to the European Union.

Read the full brief via the link.