Despite the ongoing war, Ukraine continues to advance intensively on its path towards membership in the European Union, pursuing far-reaching legal and institutional reforms required by the accession process. Ukraine’s accession to the European Union is not merely a process of legislative approximation and implementation of the EU acquis. It entails profound constitutional and institutional transformation and raises fundamental questions concerning the rule of law, democratic governance, judicial independence, institutional capacity, and the relationship between Ukraine’s constitutional order and the European legal order.

Against this background, the University of Vienna and Ivan Franko National University of Lviv will jointly organise the international academic conference “Ukraine on the Path to the European Union: Legal and Institutional Transformations” at the University of Vienna on Thursday, November 12, 2026.

The conference will bring together scholars, judges and practitioners from Ukraine, Austria and other European countries to discuss the constitutional and institutional dimensions of Ukraine’s European integration. It will combine a forward-looking examination of the challenges and reforms associated with Ukraine’s accession with comparative reflection on the experiences of EU Member States and the broader transformation of constitutional systems through European integration.

The conference will open with a keynote address by Gregor Woschnagg, former Permanent Representative of Austria to the European Union and a participant in Austria’s EU accession negotiations, on Legal and Institutional Transformations in the Context of European Integration.

The subsequent discussions will be organised around four interconnected themes:

• Ukraine on the Path to the EU: Constitutional and Institutional Challenges and Prospects
• Austria’s Path to the EU: Constitutional and Institutional Lessons for Ukraine?
• Constitutional and Institutional Transformation through European Integration: Comparative Perspectives for Ukraine
• Rule of Law and Democratic Resilience: What Can Ukraine and Europe Learn from Each Other?

By bringing together Ukrainian and European perspectives, the conference seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of Ukraine’s accession not simply as a process of adaptation to the European Union, but as a process of mutual transformation and learning with implications for both Ukraine and the European legal and constitutional order.

Please note, that places are limited. Register here: https://eveeno.com/880188951

Unfortunatelly, the venue is not accessible to people with limited mobility.