Teaching EU Law: Outcomes of the Roundtable Discussion

On 1 November, EU Project Pravo-Justice held a roundtable event ‘Teaching EU Law’. Members of Parliament of Ukraine, representatives of the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance, higher education institutions training bachelors and masters in programme subject area 081 ‘Law’ and national and international experts of EU Project Pravo-Justice attended the event. They discussed law schools' experience and best practices in designing and implementing EU law curricula.

Nataliia Haletska, national expert of EU Project Pravo-Justice, also presented the findings of a survey among representatives of higher education institutions training bachelors and masters in the programme subject area 081 ‘Law’ (on teaching EU law disciplines).

Yuliia Hryshyna, MP, co-chair of the Working Group on Legal Education Reform, emphasised that the topic of legal education is crucial.

‘The Higher Education Subcommittee, which I chair, has been working on the legal education reform. It is not easy, but gradually, we are moving forward together. We have made a lot of progress on this path despite the challenging context the country is currently facing,’ she said.

Andrii Butenko, Head of the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, stressed that if every professional community made efforts to change its education sector as lawyers try, it would bring about a profound change in higher education.

‘The National Agency represents both the state and the educational community, which has the sole responsibility to ensure the quality of higher education in Ukraine, to implement the standards of the single higher education area, and to implement the Council of Europe’s guidelines. We need to be involved in these processes. We are trying to stay abreast of the developments, even though we are responsible for all areas of education in Ukraine. Law is extremely important for us because it has a fundamental impact on justice, law enforcement and business growth in Ukraine,’ said Andrii Butenko and assured that the NAQA will support any initiatives focused on developing legal education in Ukraine.

According to Olha Sribniak, Deputy Team Leader of EU Project Pravo-Justice, the rapid pace of European integration means that Ukraine must accelerate the education of professionals competent to work as part of EU legal system.

‘The 2024 EU Enlargement Package Report underlines how urgent it is for Ukraine. In particular, it emphasises that we must continue to strengthen legal education standards and place greater focus on EU law, practical skills, and integrity,’ she said, adding that EU Project Pravo-Justice will provide comprehensive support in introducing new EU law courses.

Viacheslav Tolkovanov, Key Expert on EU Integration of EU Project Pravo-Justice, noted that this survey will facilitate the implementation of EU recommendations on further legal education reform, as well as the enhancement of cooperation with higher education institutions in the field of EU law.

‘To strengthen Ukrainian students’ knowledge and skills in EU law, we must pursue further systematic efforts, which should include steps to enhance the content of EU law curricula, build the human and institutional capacity of the respective higher education institutions, and develop international cooperation in this area,’ he said.

Viacheslav Tolkovanov emphasised that EU Project Pravo-Justice will continue to provide the support required to set up effective platforms for sharing experience and best practices as well as developing communication between all stakeholders involved in the design and implementation of new EU law curricula.

Watch the video recording of the roundtable event.

Download the expert report on the findings of the survey among higher education institutions.