LEGAL-TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF THE ADAPTATION OF THE LEGISLATION OF UKRAINE TO THE LEGISLATION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Abstract

The study is devoted to legal and technical issues of adaptation of the legislation of Ukraine to the legislation of the European Union. Attention is drawn to the fact that the adaptation of the legislation of Ukraine to the legislation of the EU within the framework of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU, and the introduction of the EU acquis into national legislation within the framework of the negotiation process with Ukraine as a candidate state for EU accession – these are two separate independent processes, although they are closely related to each other. These processes are based on different legal foundations, have different tasks and specific legal and technical methods and procedures for their implementation. Adaptation of Ukrainian legislation to EU legislation in accordance with the Association Agreement involves gradual approximation of national legislation to relevant parts of the EU acquis, i.e. harmonization of national legislation with EU acquis. The negotiation process with the candidate state regarding the accession to the EU is actually a matter of adapting the national legislation to the EU acquis. The essence of the negotiation process is that the candidate state must reach an agreement with the EU member states on specific issues of the transposition of the EU acquis into national legislation, which are its conditions for joining the EU. In accordance with the 2020 Enlargement Methodology, the negotiation process is organized according to 6 clusters of the EU acquis, each of which has a certain number of sections for negotiations. It was concluded that the development and adoption of draft legal acts bringing national legislation closer to the EU acquis within the framework of the rule-making process of state authorities is characterized by certain legaltechnical specifics. This gives reason to single out the adaptation of legislation, as a process of purposeful bringing national legislation into compliance with EU law, into a separate independent function of rule-making activity. Accordingly, the adaptation of Ukrainian legislation to the EU acquis as a function of rule-making is implemented with the help of special technical-legal procedures and has its own normative-project technique for adapting legislation. In particular, projects of normative legal acts bringing national legislation closer to the EU acquis should be developed in accordance with the basic standards of the rule of law, which provides for certainty (transparency), predictability, enforceability (applicability), proportionality, coherence and consistency of legislation.