Ukraine’s way into the EU – resistance, resilience, reforms

Ukraine’s way into the EU seems to be agreed, but the long way of reforms and alignments to the EU acquis has just started. The ongoing war hinders fast track achievements, sparks inner Ukrainian contentions and demands difficult priorisation to protect national security over urgently needed reforms. Civil resilience is growing and sustainable recovery shows successful examples on regional and local level. Military inventions and lessons drawn from the defence of the country leads to innovation and an unprecedented level of expertise in modern warfare and civic resilience towards military attacks, hybrid threats and disinformation.     

The 21th annual conference of Kyiv Dialogue will discuss how joining forces and collaboration in communities and cities strengthen the resilience of the society and what EU countries, first and foremost Germany and Poland, can do and learn to facilitate the growing together of the different parts of one Europe that has already started by maintaining human security, urban and environmental recovery and economic cooperation. 

How can Ukraine succeed in coping with the dramatic challenges, preparing reforms while fighting a war? What is the realistic scenario for the EU accession when latest reports show that the preparedness and willingness for reforms slows down? What role does civil society play in preparing recovery, resilience and reforms? 

The KYIV DIALOGUE serves as a non-partisan, independent platform for deepening and sustaining dialogue between Ukraine and Germany. The annual conference brings together multiple stakeholders of German- and European-Ukrainian relations from politics, the media, and civil society. The initiative is organized by Europäischer Austausch gGmbH (Berlin) in cooperation with the Bertelsmann Stiftung, the German Association for East European Studies (DGO), the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, the International Renaissance Foundation, and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

The conference program will be announced in late September. Registration will also open at that time.

Venue: Akademie der Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e. V. Tiergartenstraße 35, 10785 Berlin. 

Contact: Robert Sperfeld, International Department, Senior Program Officer East and Southeast Europe, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, 
E: Sperfeld@boell.de