Zelenskyy rejects Merz proposal for associate EU membership – POLITICO

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday rejected a German proposal to grant Ukraine associate membership in the EU because it would leave Kyiv without a voice inside the bloc.

“There can be no complete European project without Ukraine, and Ukraine’s place in the European Union must also be complete — full and equal,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X.

“It is important to open the clusters” on negotiation areas, he said. “It is important to make meaningful progress in the negotiations. It is important to work at one hundred percent for security and for our people,” Zelenskyy stressed.