German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said he will push for Ukraine's accelerated admission to the European Union. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Sputnik Kazakhstan.
He also proposed revisiting the issue of granting Ukraine the status of an associated member of the EU. Merz had previously stated that Ukraine cannot become a full EU member without going through the stage of associated membership. In May, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reported that Merz had proposed granting Ukraine the status of an associated member of the EU and extending to it the mutual defense obligation stipulated in the Treaty on European Union.
At that time, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky expressed dissatisfaction with this proposal by the German chancellor.
"Today we also discussed Ukraine's European prospects. After some time, we will speak in more detail about my proposal on Ukraine's associated membership. We want to speed up Ukraine's accession to the European Union. We are striving to give momentum to this process and are working in this direction in Brussels," Merz said at a press conference in Kyiv together with Zelensky.
It was broadcast live by the Phoenix TV channel. The chancellor also said he plans to hold a meeting of the "coalition of the willing" in Berlin in winter together with France and the United Kingdom. Zelensky had previously asked the EU to admit Ukraine to the union in 2027.
In addition, European leaders have repeatedly noted that Ukraine's legislation does not meet European standards and have said that one of the mandatory conditions for considering Ukraine's membership is carrying out large-scale reforms. In June 2022, the EU granted Ukraine and Moldova candidate country status.