On October 16-17, 2026, the 18th Congress of the Ukrainian Association for European Studies (UAES) was held in Lviv at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. The event, themed “Geopolitical Challenges of Ukraine’s Accession to the European Union”, brought together leading scholars, experts, and public figures to discuss the current state of negotiations, alternative scenarios for European integration, and sectoral reforms.

A significant milestone of the congress was the session "EU Enlargement and Civic Engagement," during which the coordinator of the EU_NITRA_UKR project, Associate Professor Larysa Voytenko, delivered a presentation titled “35 Years of the EU Nitrates Directive: A Critical Review and a Roadmap for its Implementation in Ukraine”.

The presentation sparked lively interest among the audience and received high praise. In particular, the session moderator, Oksana Krayevska, expressed her personal gratitude to the speaker, emphasizing that the report addressed extremely real, tangible problems of Ukraine’s European association, moving beyond purely theoretical discussions.

In her speech, Larysa Voytenko emphasized that 2026 marks the 35th anniversary of the EU Nitrates Directive. For Ukraine, the implementation of these norms is not merely a formal requirement but a critical condition for the national agricultural sector’s access to the European market. The speaker presented a metadata analysis demonstrating that in EU countries, strict regulation has stabilized nitrate levels, but the problem remains acute in regions with intensive livestock farming. The main lesson for Ukraine is that “paper” implementation does not work; effective monitoring and control mechanisms are required.

Special attention was paid to the Polish experience of implementing the Directive. The project team cited an example where, due to the sabotage of environmental requirements in favour of agro-lobbying, Poland initially declared only 2-5% of its territory as vulnerable, which led to a defeat in the EU Court in 2014 and the threat of millions in fines. Subsequently, the country was forced to carry out a “shock reform” by declaring 100% of its territory a vulnerable zone. For Ukraine, this scenario serves as a serious warning: political postponement of deadlines or a fictitious narrowing of NVZ (Nitrate Vulnerable Zones) will block our state’s path to EU membership.

The problems Ukraine faces on its path to European standards were highlighted separately. Draft Law No. 11486 (on the protection of waters from nitrate pollution) is currently stalled in the Verkhovna Rada. Furthermore, the existing methodology of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources (2021) contains mathematical errors and uses statistical smoothing, which underestimates the real threat of peak emissions. The lack of real groundwater monitoring, closed registries, and “monitoring blindness” create a dangerous illusion that the problem does not exist.

The presentation outlined not only the problems but also practical solutions, particularly financial ones. Emphasis was placed on the need to create state compensation programs for farmers, as the cost of environmental modernization for a farm with 50 heads of cattle (construction of lagoons, purchase of manure application equipment) ranges from €15,000 to €35,000. To avoid the Polish scenario of protests, Ukrainian legislation must offer a clear co-financing mechanism: 20-30% from the farmer’s own funds, 25-50% from state compensation (through the State Agrarian Registry), and up to 50% from international grants.

A separate block was dedicated to education and overcoming the “talent shortage”. Currently, Ukrainian universities have almost no programs for training specialists in the Nitrates Directive. This is why the EU_NITRA_UKR project (101238988), implemented with the financial support of the European Union (Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Module), is our direct response to these challenges. The project’s goal is to provide students, schoolchildren, and communities with the competencies to use European experience in creating a circular economy and in Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction.

Participation in the 18th UAES Congress became an important platform for disseminating the results of our project and establishing a dialogue between the academic community, policymakers, and the public. Real numbers, the tangible problems of farmers, and the urgent need to change approaches to environmental monitoring are what determine the success of Ukraine’s European integration today. And the EU_NITRA_UKR team will continue to work to ensure that this path is conscious, safe, and environmentally responsible.

This study was financially supported by the European Union within the framework of the project 101238988 – EU_NITRA_UKR “Nitrate Pollution Prevention for Health Environment: European Experience of the Nitrates Directive Implementation for a Ukrainian Circular Economy” (Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Module). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Agency for Education and Culture (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.