EU Candidacy and Rule of Law in Moldova and Ukraine
By: Charlotte Burkhard
Jul 02, 2026
Moldova and Ukraine are both pursuing EU integration and have been granted candidacy status with improving the rule of law as a condition. This week’s graph shows developments in the rule of law for Moldova, Ukraine, and the EU.
V-Dem’s Rule of Law Index considers compliance with judiciary, court independence, respect for the constitution, access to justice, transparency, and corruption. Higher values reflect stronger rule of law.
While the graph shows that the Rule of Law Index for the candidate countries is below the EU as a whole, the past-decade trend is positive.
In Moldova, the success of justice and anti-corruption reforms was limited before 2019. Reasons included incomplete implementation and the failure to meet reform deadlines. The 2020-2021 improvement coincided with two election wins of EU-friendly pro-reform parties under Maia Sandu.
In 2022, before granting candidate status, the EU saw the need for further rule of law reforms. Many of them, such as the vetting of judges, and anti-corruption investigations, are yet to be implemented.
In Ukraine, rule of law improvements were more modest. After the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, reforms of the justice system, public institutions, and anti-corruption bodies were introduced. However, in 2020, the Constitutional Court controversially invalidated many of these anti-corruption laws.
The 2022 full-scale Russian invasion led to Ukraine being granted EU candidacy status, conditional on reforms including judicial integrity and anti-corruption. These remain EU reform priorities today. Recently, progress has stalled amid corruption scandals, coinciding with a flattening Rule of Law Index.
After rule of law improvements and the implementation of key reforms in both countries, success has been stalling in recent years. This should be a warning sign: If Moldova and Ukraine do not carry out reforms, rule of law shortcomings may become the bottleneck for EU accession.
