BERLIN, October 4. /TASS/. Germany wants to expedite the process of Ukraine’s accession to the European Union and is working on this in Brussels, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said.

"We intend to expedite Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. We want to give this process momentum and are working on that in Brussels," he told a news conference during his visit to Kiev that was broadcast by Phoenix TV. "Today, we discussed Ukraine’s European prospects. We will now discuss in more detail my proposal regarding Ukraine’s associate membership."

Ukraine has held candidate status for EU membership since 2022. On July 14, Irish European Affairs Minister Thomas Byrne said that the European Union had begun negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU under the second of the six negotiation clusters. The negotiations are split into 33 negotiation sections, or chapters, which are unevenly distributed across the six negotiation clusters. The negotiations do not guarantee membership or establish a timeline.

Earlier, 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.