Brussels tells Kyiv to speed up reforms or risk billions
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Brussels is dialing up the pressure on Ukraine to press on with key reforms, as Kyiv's foot-dragging threatens billions of euros in sorely needed European funds.
In a letter to the speaker of Ukraine's parliament dated March 30, seen by the Kyiv Independent, EU Commissioner for enlargement Marta Kos outlined 11 reforms that Ukraine failed to complete by their respective deadlines throughout 2025 — and pointed out that adopting them would unlock 4 billion euros ($4.6 billion) in funding for the cash-strapped country.
Ukraine is set to run out of cash by the end of spring unless Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban lifts his opposition to a 90 billion euros ($104 billion) loan to Kyiv. While smaller, the funds currently withheld due to Ukraine's failure to pass reforms would still be a welcome boost to the cash-strapped country, now in its fifth year of Russia's full-scale invasion.
Kos said in the letter that a parliamentary session scheduled for next week is an "opportunity to move forward" on the reforms.
"Continued progress would help maintain reform momentum, bring Ukraine closer to EU membership, and deliver concrete results for Ukrainian citizens," she added.
The reforms are wide-ranging, including actions on the country's railway, court system, civil service, and electricity integration.
Several factors have contributed to the slowdown in pace, including the government's tardy submission of legal texts to the parliament, qualms over the substance of the laws, and genuinely tough and time-consuming measures.
Speaking at an event on March 31 held by Kyiv-based think tank Center for Economic Strategy, Benoit Mesnard, a senior official in the Ukraine Service at the European Commission, emphasized that the reforms were not going to go away, and that a failure to implement them would result in delayed funding.
"Ukraine cannot afford it," Mesnard said, who also expressed hope that the reforms would be adopted at the plenary session next week.
The piling pressure from Brussels comes after Ukraine failed to adopt a series of other measures that would unlock billions of dollars from both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Ukraine is set to miss the March 31 deadline to implement unpopular taxes designed to de-shadow the economy, which are required under a new $8.1 billion program from the International Monetary Fund.
The IMF measures did not make the agenda during a plenary session last week, as relations break down between the legislative and executive branches of Ukraine's government.
Kyiv has until April 20 to pass four reforms to unlock over $3 billion in funding from the World Bank.
The crisis has crystallized as Kyiv hurtles towards a looming cliff in its funding. While EU leaders agreed to provide a 90 billion euros loan to Kyiv at a summit in December last year, Orban has since backtracked.
Speaking in Kyiv on March 31, the EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas said that there was "no good news" on the 90 billion loan front.
