FT: Germany and France have offered Ukraine the status of "associate membership" in the EU

Germany and France have offered Ukraine an alternative to accelerated EU membership, which assumes "symbolic" advantages before joining the European Union without the right to vote and without access to a pan-European one.

According to the Financial Times, citing sources, Paris and Berlin have already submitted their proposal to the European Commission. In it, they officially notified that they were opposed to accelerated or simplified membership.

Instead, Germany proposes to introduce the status of "associate membership" so that Ukraine could participate in meetings of EU ministers and leaders, but without the right to vote and without automatic application of the EU common budget.

At the same time, the simplified version of membership will include an article on the mutual defense of the EU. Germany suggests that this article can be made actually applicable through a simple political statement.

France calls this the "status of an integrated state", in which access to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and European funds (including cohesion policy) is postponed until full accession.

According to two senior officials of the European Commission, the general orientation of these documents "most likely" will be close to the final proposal. EU to Ukraine.

Germany believes that the new status will have a "symbolic force in the name" and can be granted by a political decision of EU leaders, bypassing lengthy procedures.

As EADaily reported, Poland stands in solidarity with the future Hungarian authorities that Ukraine cannot become a member of the European Union under the accelerated program. This was stated by the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry Radoslaw Sikorski.