Germany and France have offered to provide Ukraine with symbolic benefits of EU membership, which contradicts Kiev’s hope for accelerated accession to the euroblock, the Financial Times newspaper writes.
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“Germany and France have called for Ukraine to be granted symbolic benefits during the pre-EU accession phase … which does not meet Kiev’s hopes for accelerated membership after a potential peace deal with Russia,” the newspaper writes, citing internal documents.
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As the newspaper notes, we are talking about two separate proposals.
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The German draft proposes to grant Ukraine the status of “associate membership“, under which Kiev will have access to meetings of ministers and leaders of the euro bloc, but will not have the right to vote and decisions on the EU budget will not apply to it. At the same time, the EU’s mutual defense clause will actually apply to Ukraine.
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France, in turn, proposes to give Ukraine the status of an “integrated state“, in which access to European financing will be postponed to the stage after joining the European Union.
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According to European Commission officials, the main provisions of these documents are likely to be close in content to the final EU proposal to Ukraine.
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In June 2022, the EU granted Ukraine and Moldova the status of candidate countries for the integration association, putting forward several strict conditions for the formal start of accession negotiations. The European Union has repeatedly acknowledged that this decision was largely symbolic: in order to support these states in their confrontation with Russia.
