{"id":10480,"date":"2026-02-19T16:37:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T13:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/?p=10480"},"modified":"2026-02-19T16:38:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T13:38:38","slug":"%d1%8f%d0%ba-%d0%bc%d1%96%d0%b6%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%80%d0%be%d0%b4%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%b9-%d0%b0%d1%83%d0%b4%d0%b8%d1%82-%d0%b7%d1%80%d1%83%d0%b9%d0%bd%d1%83%d0%b2%d0%b0%d0%b2-%d0%bc%d0%be%d0%bd%d0%be%d0%bf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/actually\/10480\/","title":{"rendered":"How an international audit destroyed the monopoly of \u201cgrant reformers\u201d and why Ukraine needs an open model of lobbying"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Oleksandr Chernykh, Vice President of the Ukrainian National Association of Lobbyists<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n<p>On February 5, 2026, an event took place in the hall of the European Parliament that is likely to become a turning point in the history of Ukrainian legal reforms. The presentation of the report \u201cThe National Association of Lawyers of Ukraine in the Context of the Rule of Law and European Integration,\u201d prepared by the American Armada Network, became the very cold shower that Kyiv, heated by the populism of \u201cactivists,\u201d so needed.<\/p>\n<p>The document, presented by former US Congressman Gregg Harper, did not simply analyze the state of affairs \u2014 it actually deconstructed the mythology on which an entire industry of \u201creformers,\u201d grant organizations, and some officials had been built for years.<\/p>\n<p>This is a phenomenon that has long gone beyond the boundaries of individual institutions. A closed ecosystem of \u201cgrant advocacy\u201d has formed in Ukraine, where the result is not the goal. The goal is the process. And the longer the \u201ccrisis\u201d lasts, the more stable the funding.<\/p>\n<p>This is a system in which:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>one organization creates information noise;<\/li>\n<li>another uses it as \u201cproof of the problem\u201d;<\/li>\n<li>the third receives funding to \u201csolve\u201d it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is a classic \u201cecho chamber\u201d where reality is replaced by repetition.<\/p>\n<p>And where the question \u201cwhat will happen to the country\u201d is given way to the question \u201cwill there be another grant?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That is why the degree of tension is constantly increasing. That is why the impression of a permanent crisis is created. That is why any alternative position is automatically branded as \u201canti-European.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The American audit was the first to systematically show the weakness of this model.<\/p>\n<p>Armada experts directly pointed out the key problem: the so-called \u201cshadow reports\u201d, which for years formed an idea of the state of reforms, were often prepared without elementary analysis, without communication with the institutions being evaluated, and without comparison with real European practices.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, we are talking about a situation when a diagnosis is made without an examination.<\/p>\n<p>When convenient quotes are extracted from various legal systems, distorted and presented as a \u201cEuropean standard\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>When the position of several interested parties is presented as the position of the entire professional community.<\/p>\n<p>And when 70 thousand specialists are left out of the dialogue, and decisions are made within a narrow circle of \u201cexperts by appointment\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Against this background, another approach is fundamentally important \u2013 the approach of openness, transparency and responsibility.<\/p>\n<p>The Ukrainian National Association of Lobbyists is built on this model.<\/p>\n<p>Today, UNLA is the only professional association that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>has a systemic anti-corruption component in its activities;<\/li>\n<li>provides institutional representation of Ukrainian interests in the European Union;<\/li>\n<li>works as an open platform, not as a closed influence group;<\/li>\n<li>forms positions based on expertise, not grant expediency.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is a fundamental difference.<\/p>\n<p>We do not create a \u201cvision of honesty\u201d \u2013 we work in a model where transparency is a basic condition, not a declaration.<\/p>\n<p>And that is why the approach demonstrated by the international audit actually confirms:<br \/>\nthe future lies with open institutions, not with closed parties.<\/p>\n<p>Another important signal of the report is the criticism of attempts to manipulate the European integration rhetoric.<\/p>\n<p>The so-called \u201croad map\u201d is presented as an imperative that is not subject to discussion.<br \/>\nIn fact, as international experts have clearly noted, this is a framework policy document, not a legal obligation to destroy existing institutions.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, Europe does not demand dismantling.<\/p>\n<p>It demands quality.<\/p>\n<p>The section devoted to digitalization deserves special attention. The ideas that are presented as progress in Ukraine are directly called risky in the report \u2014 especially in conditions of war.<\/p>\n<p>Total digitalization without an appropriate level of protection is not an innovation, but a potential vulnerability.<\/p>\n<p>And another fundamental point \u2014 lawfare.<\/p>\n<p>Using law as a tool of pressure, public harassment, \u201cblacklists,\u201d identifying a lawyer with a client \u2014 all this has nothing to do with the rule of law. These are signs of the degradation of legal culture.<\/p>\n<p>In conclusion, the Armada Network report did what should have happened a long time ago:<\/p>\n<p>it destroyed the monopoly on the \u201ccorrect position.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It showed that there is a different reality \u2014 the reality of facts, not grant narratives.<\/p>\n<p>For Ukraine, this means one thing.<\/p>\n<p>The model in which reforms are a tool for the self-reproduction of individual groups has exhausted itself.<\/p>\n<p>The model in which openness, professionalism, and responsibility are the basis is just beginning.<\/p>\n<p>And it is this model that should become the basis for the formation of public policy.<\/p>\n<p>Not through noise.<br \/>\nBut through institutions.<\/p>\n<p>Not through imitation.<br \/>\nBut through content.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oleksandr Chernykh, Vice President of the Ukrainian National Association of Lobbyists On February 5, 2026, an event took place in the hall of the European Parliament that is likely to become a turning point in the history of Ukrainian legal reforms. The presentation of the report \u201cThe National Association of Lawyers of Ukraine in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10481,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actually","category-analytic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10480"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10483,"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10480\/revisions\/10483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}