BERLIN, July 15. /TASS/. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has stated that Vladimir Zelensky did not reject his proposal to grant Ukraine EU "associate member" status.

"Vladimir Zelensky did not reject my proposal. There is one problem with this proposal, and it is a domestic political problem of Ukraine," the chancellor told reporters at a press conference. "The wording ‘associate member’ was chosen by Vladimir Zelensky's predecessor in 2013, when Ukraine was offered an association agreement with the EU," Merz explained. Therefore, he continued, this term does not evoke positive feelings. "I have spoken with Zelensky about this many times. There is no objection in principle," the chancellor assured.

Merz stated that allegedly many members of the European Council approved his proposal and promised to do everything to ensure that the European Union keeps its promise to candidate countries "in the coming weeks and months." "If we lose this trust, we will lose more than trust in us, we will lose these countries," he explained. "That would be the worst thing that could happen to us Europeans in terms of geostrategy," the German prime minister asserted. "We are all convinced that the first thing we must do is put an end to this war, thus we need to do everything in our power to ensure its conclusion," he added.

In May, Merz sent a letter to the leaders of EU member states and the heads of the European Commission and the European Council, proposing that Ukraine receive special status as an "associate member" of the bloc. He presented the initiative "not as a simplified version of EU membership," but as an expansion of the existing 2014 Association Agreement, which, in his view, would help accelerate the accession process. The chancellor also proposed integrating Ukraine into all of the bloc’s military structures and extending to it the provisions of Article 42.7 of the Treaty on European Union, which provides for mutual assistance in the field of defense.

In a government statement to parliament, the chancellor argued that associate membership in the European Union would allow Kiev to participate in European Council meetings and would also grant the country a European commissioner position without voting rights.