URGENT PROBLEMS OF THE CONSTITUTIONALIZATION OF UKRAINE’S COURSE TOWARDS FULL MEMBERSHIP IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Abstract

This article is devoted to research of essential problems of the constitutionalization of Ukraine’s course towards full membership in the European Union. This refers to problems which appeared or were affected in some way alongside the adoption of the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Constitution of Ukraine (regarding the state’s strategic course on obtaining full membership in the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization)” from 7 February 2019. According to the author, the Law has significantly changed the legal situation around the advancement towards the EU. After all, the course is from now on established irreversibly towards accession to the EU, not just towards integration, which can take place in various organizational and legal forms, not necessarily including full membership in the EU. Also, said irreversibility gained the highest legal power while being the constitutional norm, which obliged the state to perform respective acts and refrain from any others, such as searching for international organizations similar by their legal nature and considering the possibility of membership in them. The author believes that the problems of constitutionalization of the state’s aspiration towards full membership in the EU and performing necessary legal, political and institutional actions and transformations gained particular relevance due to this Law and the changes made on its basis. According to the objective and research tasks put forward by the author, the very notion of constitutionalization is analyzed in the article as relatively new in the constitutional law theory. Also the questions about changes in the Basic Law necessary for EU membership and consolidation of the treatment of the Union’s values with perspective of its further specification are addressed as essential. The article proposes changes to the Constitution of Ukraine necessary for creating the basis for the constitutionality of the course towards the EU membership. Regarding the values ofthe EU, in the current stage of Ukraine’s integration it would be sufficient to note acknowledgement, promotion and providing addition to them, e. g. to Article 15. So only certain conclusions about the urgent problems of the constitutionalization of Ukraine’s strategical course towards full membership in the EU and the directions of further research are stated in the article.