Merz proposes associate EU membership for Ukraine

Der Standard takes stock:

“For formal reasons alone, EU membership for a country that is at war is out of the question. Friedrich Merz is, of course, well aware of all this. That is why the German Chancellor has now proposed creating of a new form of associate membership for Ukraine. … The proposal sounds rather unrealistic – and it is. … Ukraine’s integration is effectively already underway, despite the war. No candidate country has ever received so many billions of euros in loans and grants. This should be part of a dual strategy vis-à-vis Russia: pressure, sanctions and diplomacy must be used to bring Putin to the negotiating table.”