At the end of September, the Kyiv School of Economics concluded its five-week “European Integration for Civil Servants” course, developed by KSE Institute in cooperation with KSE University and with financial support from the European Union under the “Supporting Ukraine in Rebuilding and Recovery” project.

The training brought together civil servants from more than 30 government institutions — including the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine — as well as representatives of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, tax and customs authorities, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, Ministry of Finance and other central executive bodies, regional administrations, and oversight institutions.

Over 19 sessions covering all six negotiation clusters, participants engaged with 20 speakers from the European Commission, EU Member States’ governments, as well as leading researchers and Ukrainian experts from Government institutions.

Among the key sessions were a lecture by Taras Kachka, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, on the political and practical context of negotiations, and a conference by Marek Belka, Chair of the Ukraine Facility Audit Board, former Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Poland, on the role of the Facility in advancing integration. Nathalie Tocci, Director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali (Italy), explained what drives decision-making in the EU in the highly political context of the EU accession process in 2025

Asier Santillán Lusuriaga, Head of the “European Integration, Governance, Rule of Law and Civil Society” Section at the EU Delegation to Ukraine, outlined the institutional architecture and the logic of negotiations. Mirna Vlašić Feketija, Deputy Ambassador of Croatia to Sweden and Latvia and former Secretary of the Governmental Coordination Committee on Croatia’s Accession Negotiations with the EU, shared her practical experience.

Pierre Heilbronn, Special Envoy of France for Economic Assistance and Reconstruction of Ukraine and former Vice-President of the EBRD, spoke about key reforms Ukraine has undertaken on its path to EU membership. Francesca Foglia, former Adviser to the EBRD President, explained the role of multilateral development banks in Ukraine’s European path, focusing on the largest institutional investor in the country, EBRD. Mariia Lazareva, Adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, led a seminar on strategic communication with the EU. Georg Ziegler, former Deputy Head of the Support Group for Ukraine (European Commission), discussed the role of the European Council, the Council of the EU, and the European Parliament in the enlargement process.

Several sessions focused on specific negotiation clusters. Manfredas Limantas, Head of the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Sector at the Directorate-General for Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood, together with Maja Cvitan Grubišin, Pravo Justice Project expert and former Deputy Minister of Justice of Croatia, addressed compliance challenges under the “Fundamentals” cluster. 

Oleksandra Avramenko, Adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister Taras Kachka on Trade and Agriculture, covered the trade dimension of integration (Cluster 2). Jean-Baptiste Brasseur, Harvard graduate 2025, former Head of the Economic Section at the Embassy of France in Ukraine, presented economic and monetary policy requirements under Cluster 3.

Rasmus Grand Berthelsen, Senior Director at Rasmussen Global Consulting, explained EU standards on environment and climate change and challenges for Ukraine (Cluster 4). Christian Ben Hell, former Agricultural Attaché and Head of the Agriculture Sector at the EU Delegation to Ukraine, spoke about agricultural policy (Cluster 5).

Finally, Rémi Duflot, one of the most prominent experts of Ukraine’s and Moldova’s EU accession processes, Ambassador of the EU to Kyrgyzstan and former Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, addressed EU integration and foreign policy (Cluster 6). 

Lukáš Macek, Director of the Sciences Po campus specialising in Central and Eastern Europe and Head of the Greater Europe Centre at the Jacques Delors Institute, spoke about the political dimension of the last steps of the EU integration process, how to engage with EU member states and reach their public opinions.

In the academic field, Ukrainian researchers also contributed. Dmytro Khutkyy, Research Fellow and Head of the Ukraine Center at the University of Tartu, spoke about digital transformation and EU integration (Cluster 3); Yulia Razmetaeva, Head of the Center for Law, Ethics, and Digital Technologies at the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, explained EU data protection and artificial intelligence policy (Cluster 3). Maryna Rabinovych, Associate Professor at the KSE Faculty of Social Sciences, summarised the Kyiv School of Economics’ work on EU integration, conducting research that directly benefits policymakers.

The final stage of the course was an individual assignment: each participant developed a personal action plan to promote European integration within their position, identifying their unit’s role and concrete steps to be implemented in the coming months.