Harmonization with EU Customs Regulations (Acquis) on the Way to Accession: Prospects and Challenges for Ukraine

• Pages: 1-18

LEX PORTUS VOL 11 ISS 3 2025

ISSN 2524-101X

eISSN 2617-541X

DOI 10.62821/lp11301

Harmonization with EU Customs

Regulations (Acquis) on the Way to Accession:

Prospects and Challenges for Ukraine

Oleh Kyryievskyi*

*Attorney at Law, Partner at AP First Chair Legal (building 2, Business center ‘KIVSH’, 120, Shevchenka St., Lviv, Ukraine); Lecturer at Ukrainian Catholic

University (17, Sventsitskoho St., Lviv, Ukraine) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8840-6886

ABSTRACT

This article examines the relationship between the ‘DCFTA acquis’ and the ‘accession

acquis’ within customs law, with a specic focus on Ukraine’s compliance with these concepts.

It analyzes recent legislative amendments, EU Commission reports, and other sources to identify

potential challenges Ukraine and other candidate countries may face in implementing the

accession acquis. In the rst part, the article outlines the theoretical framework, highlighting the

interconnectedness of the DCFTA and accession acquis. Despite diering scopes and requirements,

both concepts are dynamic and exible, allowing for simultaneous implementation. In the

second part, the article assesses Ukraine’s progress in aligning its customs legislation with EU

standards, highlighting discrepancies between the dened notion of the accession acquis and

the actual situation. It underscores contradictions between the current external denition and the

notion of exibility. Finally, the article identies key areas where challenges may arise in applying

EUrequirements and oers recommendations to address these issues, particularly concerning

customs infringements and Authorized Economic Operators. It also discusses the implications

ofadopting a new customs code alongside ongoing EU reforms.

CITATION

Kyryievskyi, O. (2025).

Harmonization with EU

Customs Regulations (Acquis)

on the Way to Accession:

Prospects and Challenges for

Ukraine. Lex Portus, 11(3), 7–24.

https://doi.org/10.62821/lp11301

KEYWORDS

EU, Ukraine, customs, acquis

communautaire, DCFTA,

Association Agreement, EU

Accession, Customs Reform,

harmonization, approximation,

Authorized Economic Operator

The journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-

NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Introduction

The EU is Ukraine’s largest trade partner, with more than a 50 % share in the trade of goods

as of 2024 (Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, 2025). This, especially amid a full-scale invasion of

Ukraine, makes European integration a strategic aim. The inevitability of European integration

is even xed in Ukraine’s Constitution. As an EU candidate, Ukraine has a set of obligations to

approximate its legislation to EU Regulations to obtain membership. The sphere of the customs

union is no exception. Simultaneously, being the party to the Deep and Comprehensive Free

Trade Agreement (further– DCFTA) with the EU as well implies a set of obligations.

This raises the question of whether the obligations foreseen by the DCFTA are

a precondition to full Ukraine’s candidacy obligations and to what extent. Can Ukraine full

both sets of obligations simultaneously, and, nally, shall DCFTA still be useful as a means of

accession, or maybe it is worth concentrating on the accession obligations instead?

To address these questions, we need to clarify the current state of Ukraine’s fullment

of DCFTA and accession obligations. Ukraine has already substantially aligned its customs

regulations to full the DFTA obligations. For instance, quite recently, Ukraine has

incorporated a list of EU-based customs regulations, including the law (Verkhovna Rada

of Ukraine, 2024) implementing specic parts of the Union Customs Code (further – UCC)

and its Implementing and Delegated regulations. The explanatory note to the draft of

the mentioned law clearly denes it as a precondition to further EU accession. However,

8LEX PORTUS VOL 11 ISS 3 2025

the incorporated provisions were already foreseen by the DCFTA (European Commission,

2016). Thus, this research seeks to understand what, in fact, constitutes the accession

obligations– in theory and in practice.

Finally, the situation is further complicated by the recent developments in the EU customs

legislation – namely, the EU Customs Reform Proposal. The implementation of both sets of

requirements shall also consider the potential Reform and practical challenges for traders

in the changing regulatory environment. We will try to gure out if the practical denition

of accession obligations considers these challenges and, where possible, provide our

recommendations.

Methodology

This research aims to (1) clarify the relations between the DCFTA and accession obligations

in the sphere of customs, (2) dene the role of the DCFTA in the approximation with the

mentioned accession acquis and features of the practical denition of the accession acquis

elements (3) identify practical problems in the approximation process, using examples of

problematic elements within the EU Customs Union and potential upcoming customs reform.

It combines general scientic and specic methodologies characteristic of all legal studies.

Synthesis is used to characterize notions of DCFTA acquis and accession acquis, as well as legal

modelling, to formulate the factors to consider while aligning the customs legislation with the

EU requirements. Comparative legal analysis is used to research the obligations based on both

the DCFTA and accession process, and to dene the factual level of implementation of these

obligations into Ukrainian legislation. It is used to compare the theoretical characteristics of

notions of DCFTA acquis and accession acquis to their practical (external) denition.

The research utilizes primarily sources – international agreements, legislation of the EU

and Ukraine, the binding and non-binding acts of the EU bodies and Ukrainian authorities,

as well as secondary sources – analytical conclusions and scientic research in the eld of

international law, customs law both in Ukraine and the EU. This article is limited to the sphere

of the customs union and other customs issues in the meaning of Art.1 of the Union Customs

Code (general rules and procedures applicable to goods brought into or taken out of the

customs territory of the Union).

Methodologically, the study is also limited to only a surface-level analysis when it comes to

statistical results on the levels of DCFTA acquis implementation, just for illustrative purposes,

with no aim to dene the precise level of approximation. It avoids the discussion about the

theoretical problems of the notion ‘acquis’. It is also limited in the analysis of the potential

problematic sphere of the accession acquis in the customs sphere to the most illustrative

examples– prospects of the reform, customs penalties, and authorized economic operators.

1. Accession Obligations in the Sphere of Customs: Where to Find and How to

Harmonize With?

Ukraine will need fully accept and comply with the ‘entire body of EU law or EU

acquis, as it stands at the time of accession’ – that how the substance of the membership

of the negotiations is dened in the Report of the Ministerial meeting opening the

Intergovernmental Conference on the Accession of Ukraine to the EU (Luxembourg,

June 25, 2024) (further– Negotiating framework) (Conference on Accession to the European

Union, 2024, p. 6).

The notion of ‘acquis’ is also directly used by the Annex XV of the DCFTA regarding

regulations to be implemented by Ukraine in the eld of customs legislation and related

sources of EU law into the Agreement.