Germany’s leader Friedrich Merz has launched a fresh proposal to fast-track Ukraine’s entry into the EU by giving it one foot in the door straight away, according to a letter seen by Euractiv’s Rapporteur.

The war-torn country should join first as an “associate member” giving it the right to participate in councils of EU leaders and ministers without the right to vote, according to a new plan pitched by the German government.

“We do not have time for further delays,” Friedrich Merz wrote in the letter to António Costa, Ursula von der Leyen, and Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides on Wednesday. “It is now time to boldly move on with Ukraine’s EU integration through innovative solutions as immediate steps forward,” wrote the chancellor.

Merz discussed his ideas with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and EU leaders at an informal summit in Cyprus in April. “My aim would be to reach an agreement soon,” wrote Merz, stressing that this would not be a mere “membership light”.

The new model would give Ukraine the right to a European commissioner post without portfolio or voting rights, associated MEPs without voting rights, and the right to speak at important meetings, while it continues a parallel path to full membership by carrying out domestic reforms in areas such as rule-of-law and minority rights.

Get things moving

The German proposal is an attempt to inject dynamism into a moribund debate in EU circles about how to accelerate the expansion of the bloc to Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkans, including frontrunners Montenegro and Albania.

Developments in the US-led Ukraine-Russia peace talks late last year sparked frantic brainstorming in Brussels because of the imminent prospect that a deal could oblige the EU to accept Ukraine as a member as early as 2027.

It is also something Zelenskyy has openly pressed for.

There was a big expectation in policy circles that the European Commission would propose a review of the way enlargement works in the spring. However, since then the enlargement debate has hit a slump.

Ambassadors to the EU’s 27 countries shot down a radical idea from the European Commission to fully swallow Ukraine into the bloc first, known as “reverse enlargement”.

Since then the discussions have gone largely underground, bar some light tweaks suggested by countries who push for the Western Balkans to be integrated more quickly.

Enlargement has dropped off the agenda of EU leaders who were supposed to discuss it substantially at summits in March and April. The same goes for the next summit in June.

The heads of the EU institutions have also been reluctant to stamp a deadline on Ukraine’s entry, despite public entreaties from Zelenskyy. If peace talks pick up pace again, the EU would be under pressure to have an answer for Ukraine.

Eyeing observers

Under Germany’s plan, countries such as Moldova and the Western Balkans states would not become associated members but would get a lower status as observers in the EU institutions.

“We could envision a regular joint session of the Commission or the European Parliament, with a representative of the Western Balkans countries,” said a German official.

These countries would also benefit from greater access to EU programmes and sectors of the single market, as the advance on domestic reforms, under a process called gradual integration.

Berlin booster

Merz’s pitch is an attempt to give tangible benefits to the Ukrainian people, and to take the sting out of Zelenskyy’s repeated complaints about EU inaction.

“We are all aware that accession will not happen in a couple of years, certainly not this decade,” said the German government official.

“But it’s an intermediate step on the way to membership and we feel it’s a booster for negotiations,” the official added. The aim would be for Ukraine to fully join the bloc, the person said.

However, EU countries such as Austria, grouped together in an informal club called the Friends of the Western Balkans, are opposed to treating Ukraine differently from countries that have been in the EU’s waiting line for many more years.

It also comes just weeks before a Western Balkans summit in Montenegro in early June.

(bw, jp)