SITE 2025 Development Day | Steady against the wind: Ukraine’s and Moldova’s path towards EU membership

Warm welcome to the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) annual Development Day Conference on December 5, 2025, as we continue the discussion of Ukraine's and Moldova's path towards European Union membership. The event will bring together high-level politicians, international experts, and representatives of the business sector for a series of panels and presentations designed to shed light on the crucial steps and strategies necessary for EU integration.

Starttid: 2025-12-05 at 09:10

Sluttid: 2025-12-05 at 15:45

Tidszon: CET

Plats: Venue details will be shared exclusively with confirmed attendees.

About the event

Moldova and Ukraine are - against the odds - making steady progress toward EU membership. Reforms are moving forward, key elections have been won, and screening across many EU acquis clusters is advancing.

At the same time, major challenges remain: territorial integrity, judicial reform, anti-corruption enforcement, institutional capacity, and overall economic and political stability.

At this year’s Development Day, we will:

Take stock of the current situation
Draw lessons from past experience
Discuss how Sweden and the EU can best support the next steps

Format & focus

The program will feature political representatives from Sweden, Ukraine, and Moldova, with presentations and panel discussions centered on three themes:

Economies & support: Economic outlooks and the role of foreign assistance in an unstable world
Democracy & media: Combating corruption, disinformation, and electoral fraud - roles for media and civil society
People & capacity: Human capital, absorption capacity, and turning brain drain into brain gain

Special guests

Dag Hartelius, Sweden's State Secretary for Foreign Affairs

Olena Kondratiuk, Deputy Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament

Marcel Spatari, Chair of the European Integration Committee of the Moldovan Parliament

Nataliia Shapoval, Chairman of KSE Institute

Raj M. Desai, Professor of International Development at Georgetown University

Registration & program

To attend the event, please complete your registration by [clicking here]. Venue details will be shared exclusively with confirmed attendees. To view the program, please click in the following link - [see here].

Should you have any questions, feel free to contact us at site@hhs.se.

Practical information

Entry: Free with registration (limited capacity).
Mingle opportunity during breaks (outside the venue)
Photography/ video recording: The event may be photographed/ video recorded. Inform staff if you prefer not to be photographed.
Language: The event will be conducted in English.