The letter was sent on Wednesday to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Council President António Costa and also Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, whose country leads the EU Council of Ministers in the spring.
The call is clear: something must happen now.
"It is now time to boldly move forward with Ukraine's EU integration through innovative solutions... My goal is to reach a settlement soon," Merz writes in the letter, which Germany has also distributed to various news agencies and news sites.
Own commissioner?
The idea is that Ukraine will be given the right to participate in EU summits and ministerial meetings, albeit without voting rights. In addition, it is proposed that Ukraine will be allowed to appoint a member of the European Commission - albeit also without voting rights and without a specified area of responsibility. The same applies to the European Parliament, where Ukrainian “associated members” will be allowed to participate, but without taking part in decisions.
In this way, Ukraine could be more quickly and permanently linked to the EU, without having to wait for all the requirements and formal steps that are part of the often very lengthy accession process.
"We are aware that accession will not happen for several years, certainly not in this decade. But this is a temporary step on the path to membership and we feel that it could give a boost to the negotiations," a German government source told the news site Euractiv.
Meet in Montenegro
The letter carries extra weight given Germany's influence in the EU. Yet it is unclear how much support Merz has for his plans among other countries.
A clue is expected as early as Tuesday when the countries' EU ministers meet in Brussels to, among other things, begin preparing for the EU's next regular summit on June 18-19.
On June 5, EU heads of state and government will also participate in a summit in Montenegro with their colleagues from the six Western Balkan countries that have long been negotiating membership.
Facts: They want to join the EU
Ukraine has been given the green light to negotiate EU membership, but has not yet opened any formal negotiation chapters. However, an opening can be expected after the change of government in Hungary, which has long prevented a start. Moldova is also waiting for the same thing, as is North Macedonia.
Montenegro and Albania have been negotiating since 2012 and 2022 respectively and are expected to complete their negotiations this year or at least in the next few years.
Serbia has been negotiating since 2014, but has not yet progressed as far as its neighboring countries.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, in turn, has only received a promise to start negotiations, but no date yet, while Kosovo has so far only been recognized as a "potential candidate country".
Negotiations with Turkey began in 2005, but have been frozen in practice since 2016. Georgia has been recognized as a candidate country, but has on its own initiative paused any possible negotiations until 2028.
Iceland ended its negotiation attempts in 2015, but will hold a referendum on a possible restart in August this year.
