Berlin's 'associate' EU offer rebuffed by Zelenskyy as Scholz takes Global South brief and Bundestag delegation flies to Taiwan

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday rejected the proposal Chancellor Friedrich Merz set out earlier in the week to grant Ukraine an "associate" status in the European Union without voting rights. In a letter to European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, seen by dpa, Zelenskyy wrote that the offer "would be unfair for Ukraine to be present in the European Union but remain without a voice" and that the enlargement process was "taking too long." "There can be no complete European project without Ukraine, and Ukraine's place in the European Union must also be complete -- full and equal," he wrote. Merz, in his own letter to Costa and von der Leyen earlier in the week, had argued, "It is obvious that we will not be able to complete the accession process shortly, given the countless hurdles as well as the political complexities of ratification processes," proposing instead a "political solution that brings Ukraine substantially closer to the European Union and its core institutions immediately."

The exchange comes a day after a separate refusal of the same idea by Kyiv on Friday and follows months of stalled negotiations: Ukraine has held candidate status since December 2023, with Hungary's Orban government previously blocking progress before its electoral defeat to Peter Magyar last month. A German government spokesperson, cited by Reuters, said Berlin's letter "serves to open the necessary debate" and that in substance the priority was opening the negotiation chapters, where there was "a high level of agreement with the Ukrainian president's view."

Within Germany, former Chancellor Olaf Scholz will likely chair a new "North-South Committee" advising the government on relations with the Global South, the Tagesspiegel reported. A Development Ministry spokeswoman declined to confirm but told dpa that internal consultations on the chair are ongoing; the committee is expected to be appointed within months. Its creation was written into the coalition agreement between Merz's CDU/CSU and the SPD; the body's remit is to advise on diversifying and intensifying ties with Global South countries and developing them into a global network. Scholz, who served as chancellor from 2021 until May 2025 -- whose three-party SPD/Greens/FDP coalition collapsed in November 2024 over an internal row about the ailing economy, and whose SPD posted its lowest postwar result in the February 2025 snap election -- remains in the Bundestag for a constituency near Berlin.

A five-member Bundestag delegation flew to Taiwan for a visit running from May 24 to 31, led by Green lawmaker Till Steffen, chairman of the Berlin-Taipei Parliamentary Circle of Friends. "I would advise China not to interfere," Steffen told dpa. "These are long-standing and stable relations that we have. We maintain them, and we are expanding them." He told the agency Taiwan was turning increasingly to Europe and Germany "amid waning support from the United States under the Trump administration." The delegation -- which also includes Klaus-Peter Willsch and Markus Reichel of Merz's CDU, Rainer Kraft of the AfD, and Mandy Eissing of the Left -- plans to meet Taiwanese parliamentarians and President Lai Ching-te. Beijing maintains the democratic island is part of the People's Republic.

The day also marked Germany's Verfassungstag -- the 77th anniversary of the Basic Law -- with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier calling on citizens to engage in voluntary work and democratic commitment. The German Chamber of Industry and Commerce lowered its 2026 economic forecast, citing the continuing Middle East conflict. A newspaper report cited by DW said more than 300,000 people obtained German passports in 2025, a 6 percent year-on-year increase, with a further surge of naturalisations expected next year as Ukrainian refugees in Germany become eligible after losing some of their protected status.