Sectoral Dimensions of Ukraine’s European Integration

Abstract

Europeanization beyond the EU’s borders unfolds unevenly across policy sectors, economic domains, and social contexts. Ukraine’s European integration trajectory offers a particularly instructive case of sectorally differentiated Europeanization, in which alignment with EU rules and practices advances at varying speeds and through distinct constellations of actors, interests, and institutions. This panel examines how European integration in Ukraine is shaped not only by formal enlargement frameworks, but by sector-specific dynamics of market integration, development strategy, and social relations under conditions of war and structural transformation. A first core focus of the panel is the role of economic interests and business actors in facilitating integration with European markets. Moving beyond state-centric and conditionality-based accounts, contributions explore how domestic firms, business associations, and sectoral coalitions proactively advocate for regulatory alignment, market access, and inclusion in EU value chains. Recent research on Europeanization highlights that integration outcomes are often co-produced by economic actors who translate EU market rules into locally viable practices and implementation strategies. The panel therefore examines how business advocacy and local implementation agency vary across sectors – and how these actors shape both the pace and content of market integration with the EU. Second, the panel addresses the correspondence between market-rule harmonization and forward-looking developmental strategies. While EU integration is often operationalized through regulatory convergence and compliance with the acquis, sectoral Europeanization also raises questions about developmental sequencing, industrial policy, and long-term economic upgrading. Investigation of particular industrial examples is essential for explaining the difference between sectoral scenarios in which harmonization with EU market rules is able to producing structural transformation of Ukraine’s economy moving beyond merely locking Ukrainian industries into subordinate positions within European markets. Third, the panel explores the effects of local interethnic relations and social configurations on the definition and implementation of European integration. It examines how ethnic diversity and minority rights frameworks constitute a separate dimension of EU enlargement conditionality. As a result, such analysis demonstrate how European integration is perceived, contested, and instrumentalized at the level of bilateral national relations between Ukraine and its neighbors. By focusing on sectoral dynamics, economic agency, and social context, this panel contributes to the section on Europeanization Beyond EU Borders by advancing a granular and politically grounded understanding of how European integration is implemented, contested, and reshaped within candidate states. Ukraine’s case highlights the importance of moving beyond unitary models of Europeanization to capture the diverse sectoral pathways and social foundations of integration under conditions of war and transformation.

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