Workshop & Seminar “Ukraine's EU Accession Process: Establishing and Securing Rule of Law Structures in the Long-Term”
The workshop “Ukraine's EU Accession Process: Establishing and Securing Rule of Law Structures in the Long-Term” took place on October 12-19, 2025, in Regensburg, bringing together more than 35 speakers from Ukraine, Germany, Romania, Cyprus, Bosnia, Central Asia, and Poland.
Among the participants were students from Ukrainian universities - including Vasyl Stefanyk Carpathian National University (Ivano-Frankivsk), King Danylo University (Ivano-Frankivsk), Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University (Kharkiv), and National Taras Shevchenko University (Kyiv) - as well as from the University of Regensburg, alongside researchers and practitioners.
As part of the research area War, Peace, and Post-War Order of the Center for Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies, “Denkraum Ukraine” / “Think Space Ukraine”, the workshop focused on the establishment and long-term safeguarding of rule of law structures, in line with EU accession Chapters 23 “Judiciary and Fundamental Rights” and 24 “Justice, Freedom and Security”. The workshop particularly addressed challenges Ukraine faces in fulfilling these core legal and institutional criteria amid the ongoing war, in anticipation of a future post-war legal order, and within the broader political context of EU enlargement.
The program addressed a broad range of topics related to democratisation, governance, and the rule of law in Ukraine and beyond. Central themes included constitutional law; freedom of expression, media, and the role of NGOs and local governance in democratisation; democratic elections in post-war Ukraine; fundamental rights and obligations; justice reform; minority rights; criminal law and corruption; anti-corruption measures in Central Asia and Ukraine; and EU Enlargement and the lessons learned from Southeast Europe and other accession processes.
Special highlights of the workshop included the keynote lecture “EU Accession – a Challenge for Ukraine and the EU” by Prof. Dr. Rainer Wedde (Wiesbaden Business School, Member of the Board of the German-Ukrainian Jurists’ Association, Co-leader of the Legal Section of the German Association for East European Studies), a session on EU Enlargement and Ukraine with representatives of the Federal Foreign Office, and group work of the students, concentrating on the issues of anti-corruption reforms in Ukraine, freedom of expression vs. countering disinformation, and protection of media independence in Ukraine.
The full program of the workshop is available here.
The workshop was organized by “Denkraum Ukraine” / “Think Space Ukraine” at the University of Regensburg, financed by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) through the funds from the Federal Foreign Office (AA), and the Institute for East European Law.
We are thankful to our participants for their interesting contributions during the workshop and wish them continued success in their work!
