BRUSSELS — Ukraine must avoid backsliding on anti-corruption efforts to remain in the fast lane for EU membership, Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said Tuesday as she prepared to unveil a report praising pro-EU reforms in Moldova, Albania and Montenegro.

While lauding Kyiv’s efforts to conduct reforms during wartime, Kos pointed to concerns about the strength of anti-corruption reforms as a potential obstacle following a furor in the summer over a law that would have kneecapped the independence of anti-corruption watchdogs.

“Amid the challenges caused by Russia’s war of aggression, Ukraine has demonstrated its commitment to its EU path,” Kos told European lawmakers ahead of unveiling the EU’s latest progress reports on candidate countries. “It will be essential to sustain this momentum and prevent any risk of backsliding, in particular on anti-corruption.”

Facing an international outcry, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reversed course on his controversial decision to assert political control over the anti-corruption agencies and restored the independence of two corruption-fighting bodies in July.

But the damage to Ukraine’s image as an A+ candidate for EU membership had already been done in the eyes of the European Commission, as well as national capitals, according to EU officials and diplomats who spoke to POLITICO ahead of the report’s unveiling later on Tuesday afternoon.

The uproar led Kos to give slightly more emphatic praise for Moldova’s reform efforts in the progress report even though Chișinău’s accession bid is politically linked to that of Kyiv, and the two countries have so far advanced in lockstep. “Moldova has progressed on its accession path with accelerated speed and significantly deepened its cooperation with the EU despite the continuous hybrid threats and attempts to destabilize the country,” Kos said.

Of all the countries applying to join the EU, Brussels gave the highest praise to Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine and Moldova, noting that these countries aimed to finalize their accession negotiations by the end of 2026, the end of 2027, and in 2028 for the latter two, respectively. “The coming year will be a moment of truth for all candidate countries, but especially those that presented ambitious plans to complete negotiations,” Kos added.

This year’s accession report card will land amid heightened concern in Brussels and European capitals that Moscow is trying to pull EU candidates out of Brussels’ orbit and back into Russia’s sphere of influence.

A recent election campaign in Moldova, in which pro-EU forces prevailed, was marred by “massive Russian interference,” according to President Maia Sandu, while Russia has openly courted Serbian leader Aleksandar Vučić, inviting him to Moscow for a military parade last May.

The report card is expected to be particularly harsh on Serbia, the largest EU candidate country in the Western Balkans, which has received visits from both European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President António Costa in the past few months.

“In Serbia, the authorities continue to declare EU membership as their strategic goal, but the actual pace of implementation of reforms has slowed down significantly,” Kos told the lawmakers. 

But the harshest words were reserved for Georgia, where a Moscow-friendly ruling party has been cracking down on pro-democracy, pro-EU protests.

“In Georgia, the situation has sharply deteriorated, with serious democratic backsliding,” Kos said. “The Commission considers Georgia a candidate country in name only.”