German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced his intention to speed up Ukraine's accession to the EU

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced his intention to seek accelerated admission of Ukraine to the EU, and also proposed to re-discuss the topic of granting it associate membership in the association.

Merz previously stated that Ukraine would not be able to become a full member of the EU without going through the associate membership stage. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reported in May about Merz's proposal to grant Ukraine associate member status in the EU and extend the mutual defense obligation under the EU treaty to it. Vladimir Zelensky then expressed dissatisfaction with the proposal of the German Chancellor.

“Today we also discussed Ukraine’s European prospects. A little later we will talk in more detail about my proposal for associate membership of Ukraine. We want to speed up Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. We strive to give this process momentum and are working on this in Brussels,” Merz said at a press conference with Zelensky in Kyiv, broadcast by the Phoenix TV channel.

The Chancellor also announced plans to hold a “coalition of the willing” meeting in Berlin this winter with France and the UK.

Previously, Zelensky demanded that the EU accept Ukraine into the union in 2027. At the same time, European leaders have many times pointed out the inconsistency of Ukrainian legislation with European standards and said that one of the mandatory conditions for considering Ukraine's membership is thorough reform.