Why Kyiv opposes Merz's idea of associate EU membership
Last week, an idea put forward by Merz regarding a special format for Ukraine’s EU integration caused quite a stir. The proposal drew criticism, including from European Pravda, but also some positive reactions.
However, this does not mean that Merz’s initiative is dead.
It may have seemed that President Zelenskyy had put an end to the discussion when, at the end of the week, he rejected Merz’s proposal in its current form in a detailed letter to EU leaders.
Read more about the problematic aspects of the German chancellor’s proposal and how they could be fixed in the article by Sergiy Sydorenko, European Pravda's editor: Ukraine has rejected "associate membership". What should the EU offer instead?
Indeed, Merz’s proposal contains both certain dangerous elements and some positive elements that could be useful for Ukraine.
The German chancellor did make several critical mistakes in his letter to the EU leadership, and these need to be analysed separately in order to draw red lines that would create risks for Ukraine if crossed. But if these errors are corrected, there are some entirely possible steps the EU could take that would not yet mean full membership, but would still be beneficial for Ukraine.
Kyiv should fight for such formats and for Merz’s idea to be refined into acceptable forms. And this work must be done without delay, because the window of opportunity for creating a new framework will only be open for a few more weeks – on 18-19 June, at the end of the Cypriot presidency.
The main problem with Merz’s letter is that the integration scheme he has proposed, if implemented in its current form, would call Ukraine’s ultimate goal into question.
Under Merz’s proposal, Ukraine and Moldova would be decoupled. For Chișinău (and for the Balkan countries that are further advanced in integration), Merz suggests finding ways to accelerate accession, while for Ukraine he proposes introducing a new special status. As a result, the letter was perceived in Kyiv as an attempt to create a pretext that could lead to EU membership for Ukraine being replaced with an alternative (and an empty alternative devoid of substantive content at that).
European and German sources have assured European Pravda that this was not Merz’s intention.
He still sincerely aims to bring Ukraine into the EU, just as he stated in his letter.
The second idea that will definitely not find support from Kyiv or a unanimous positive reception from the Ukrainian expert community is the special status that Merz has proposed calling "associate membership".
In Berlin, however, they are insisting that for Merz, this term is not essential. Several sources have assured European Pravda that the chancellor’s team is already aware of Kyiv’s negative perception of the name, and that it would not be a problem to drop references to "associate membership" in all future reflections on Ukraine’s path to accession.
Any ideas about how Ukraine could gain greater access to EU institutions and be more actively present in European discussions are worth considering. But attempts to formalise them as an official status raise a legitimate question in Kyiv: could this turn into a substitute for membership?
The framing of Merz’s proposal leans towards precisely that interpretation.
In search of a hybrid solution that takes these considerations into account, Lithuania, through dialogue with other EU countries, is proposing that Ukraine should formally be granted the status of an "acceding state", meaning a country in the process of joining the EU. As you can see, this is a fundamentally different concept from the "associate member" status suggested in Merz’s letter.
Therefore, if the European Union offers a substantive, concrete status that truly functions as such a transitional stage, this could help Ukrainian reforms. It would also demonstrate to EU member states, their politicians, Ukrainians, and ultimately also the Kremlin, that Ukraine’s accession to the EU is a truly inevitable and irreversible European decision, and that full membership is only a matter of time.
Ideally, the EU could decide to grant this status in exchange for Ukraine meeting the requirements of the first Fundamentals cluster, which covers the rule of law, anti-corruption measures, human rights and more.