FT: Germany and France consider "symbolic" EU membership for Ukraine

France and Germany are considering proposals to give Ukraine "symbolic" benefits during the EU accession process, without granting Kyiv access to the European Union's common budget or voting rights before full membership.

Source: proposals laid out in separate documents seen by the Financial Times, as reported by European Pravda

Details: The FT said Paris and Berlin have rejected European Commission proposals to scrap the slow, bureaucratic accession process to give Kyiv rapid membership benefits.

Germany is proposing an "associate membership" status under which Ukraine would take part in meetings of ministers and leaders, but would have no voting rights and no automatic access to the EU's common budget.

Berlin's proposal also said the new status would have "symbolic strength through the name" and could be granted through a political decision by EU leaders, enabling lengthy procedures to be avoided.

France described such a partial membership as "integrated state status", under which access to the common agricultural policy and European funding would be postponed until full accession.

The recent election defeat of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who vetoed the start of membership talks with Ukraine, raised some hopes of progress on the issue. Most EU members, however, fear that giving Ukraine and other candidates a fast-track path to accession would overturn the EU's political balance and undermine the value of membership.

Two senior European Commission officials told the FT that the overall substance of the French and German documents would "likely" to be close to the EU's final proposal for Ukraine.

Taras Kachka, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, told the FT: "We are in contact with [Paris and Berlin] and other capitals as well – everything is evolving. There are other papers as well."

Another Ukrainian official said Kyiv fears any vague concept of membership would be seen by a war-weary population as a poor substitute for genuine EU accession.

Background:

• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated earlier that Kyiv is not interested in partial membership of the European Union, just as Europe would not want a limited version of the Ukrainian military.
• According to European Pravda, the EU has not closed discussions about the possibility of Ukraine joining in 2027, although no outline of the process has been agreed on yet.

Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!