Chairman of the Kyiv Security Forum, Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2014–2016, Arseniy Yatsenyuk called on the Ukrainian authorities to speed up integration into the European Union and supported the idea of an intermediate membership format proposed by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. He said this on air on the Espresso TV channel. The politician published a fragment of the broadcast on his Facebook.
Yatsenyuk said that during his trip to Brussels he took part in meetings at the European Commission, in particular as a member of the high-level group under the European Commissioner for Defense Andrius Kubilius. According to him, during the discussions the question of Ukraine's future membership in the EU was raised. He recalled the proposal of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz regarding an intermediate format for the integration of Ukraine into the European Union.
“There is a letter from Merz, which you probably also talked about on air, that Merz offered Ukraine associate membership. And I supported Merz’s position that, as an intermediate stage, Ukraine should now immediately take this into its own hands,” Yatsenyuk said.
He stressed that Ukraine should take advantage of the current political moment in Europe, in particular while Emmanuel Macron remains President of France.
“We need to get in the door, we need to get into the European Commission. Because this is democracy. While Macron is still president, before some right-wing or left-wing radicals have seized control of the European Union,” said the former prime minister.
According to Yatsenyuk, the intermediate format should not replace Ukraine’s full membership in the EU.
“We need to attract as many allies as possible to this letter from Merz and already now enter the European Union. Under no circumstances should we remove the key goal, and this should be included in the agreement. The key goal is Ukraine’s membership in the European Union,” he emphasized.
Yatsenyuk also said that during discussions in Brussels there was a proposal to call this format not “associate membership”, but “progressive membership”.
“It’s just that the phrase ‘associate membership’ doesn’t sound nice. And even high-ranking and wise people there suggested to me: it’s better for us to rename this – progressive membership. I say: then as an intermediate stage towards membership in the European Union,” he said.
According to Yatsenyuk, the Ukrainian government should “make every effort to bring to completion this year” decisions that will speed up the country’s European integration.
