{"id":1396520,"date":"2026-05-23T10:10:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T07:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/associated-membership-will-germanys-initiative-become-a-trap-for-ukraine\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T10:10:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T07:10:20","slug":"associated-membership-will-germanys-initiative-become-a-trap-for-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/associated-membership-will-germanys-initiative-become-a-trap-for-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Associated membership: will Germany&#8217;s initiative become a trap for Ukraine?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The proposal to grant Ukraine the special status of an associated member of the European Union, voiced by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, has caused a mixed reaction.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p> On the air of &#8220;Pryamoy&#8221;, political scientist Oleg Sahakyan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=E9LIcd6RagM\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">expressed<\/a> the opinion that such an initiative reflects the real state of affairs in Europe, where a significant part of the countries has not yet shown readiness for a full-fledged expansion of the bloc due to the scale of the Ukrainian state.<\/p>\n<p> &#8220;On the one hand, the European Union is politically not ready to take over Ukraine both institutionally and normatively, because this is a big challenge for the European Union,&#8221; the expert noted, analyzing the proposal of the German side.<\/p>\n<p> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=E9LIcd6RagM<\/p>\n\t\t<aside class=\"shortcode-also\" data-title=\"Read also\" >\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/tensions-are-rising-the-eu-called-the-2027-deadline-for-ukraines-accession-unrealistic\/\">Tensions are rising: the EU called the 2027 deadline for Ukraine&#8217;s accession unrealistic<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\n<p> He emphasized that for Brussels, accepting a country with such demographic and economic size is a difficult task, as the system is used to integrating much smaller players.<\/p>\n<p> According to the political scientist, Germany is acting under pressure from internal circumstances and electoral threats from right-wing radical forces, but this idea should not be rejected emotionally. It is important to understand whether such a status will not become a substitute for full accession.<\/p>\n<p> If associate membership opens up new security programs and financial support now, Ukraine can use this as an intermediate stage without giving up its strategic goal, says Oleg Sahakyan.<\/p>\n\t\t<aside class=\"shortcode-also\" data-title=\"Read also\" data-right>\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/european-commissioner-calls-for-accelerating-negotiations-on-ukraines-accession-to-the-eu\/\">EU Commissioner Pushes to Fast-Track Ukraine\u2019s Membership Talks<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\n<p> As a reminder, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggested on April 27 that Ukraine may have to agree that parts of its territory may remain outside of Kyiv&#8217;s control in a future peace agreement with Russia, linking such concessions to the country&#8217;s prospects for joining the European Union.<\/p>\n<p> At the same time, <a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/nimechchyna-vvazhaie-nemozhlyvym-vstup-ukrainy-v-yes-z-2028-roku-u-chomu-prychyna\/\">Merz warned against hopes for Ukraine&#8217;s quick accession<\/a> to the European Union, stating that Ukraine cannot join the EU during a war and must first meet strict criteria, including those related to the rule of law and the fight against corruption.<\/p>\n<p> The German Chancellor later proposed granting Ukraine <a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/merts-zaproponuvav-nadaty-ukraini-status-asotsiyovanoho-chlena-yes\/\">a new status of &#8220;associate member&#8221;<\/a> of the European Union as a temporary step towards full membership. Merz stressed that Ukraine is in a special situation due to the war, but at the same time has already made significant progress on the path to EU membership.<\/p>\n<p> Meanwhile, the European Commission <a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/u-yevrokomisii-vidreahuvaly-na-ideiu-mertsa-shchodo-ukrainy-v-yes-detali\/\">confirmed receipt of a letter<\/a> from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz regarding the idea of Ukraine&#8217;s &#8220;associated membership&#8221; in the European Union. At the same time, it noted that Ukraine&#8217;s accession to the EU is directly related to security issues of the European Union itself.<\/p>\n<p> Also follow <strong>\u201cPryamim\u201d<\/strong> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Facebook<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/prm_ua\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">X<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/+rtV4dxYu2_cyNjVi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Telegram<\/a> , and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Instagram.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The proposal to grant Ukraine the special status of an associated member of the European Union, voiced by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, has caused a mixed reaction. On the air of &#8220;Pryamoy&#8221;, political scientist Oleg Sahakyan expressed the opinion that such an initiative reflects the real state of affairs in Europe, where a significant part [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":1396499,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76871,76872,76885],"class_list":["post-1396520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1396520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1396499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1396520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1396520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}