{"id":7044,"date":"2026-05-23T12:44:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T09:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=7044"},"modified":"2026-05-23T12:44:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T09:44:00","slug":"zelenski-against-the-merts-proposal-ukraine-cannot-be-in-the-eu-without-a-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=7044","title":{"rendered":"Zelenski against the Merts proposal: Ukraine cannot be in the EU without a voice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, through a letter to the leaders of the E.EU<\/strong>, called “unfair” the German proposal to allow Ukraine to participate in Union meetings without voting rights. <\/p>\n

The proposal was put forward by German Chancellor Friedrich Merts<\/strong>, who proposed a transitional model of cooperation until the country’s full accession to the European Union was completed. According to him, this formula could also help efforts to end the war that broke out after the Russian invasion. <\/p>\n

Zelensky’s response to European leaders<\/h3>\n

In his letter, cited by Reuters, Zelensky<\/strong> noted that following the departure of Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong> from the political scene after the last elections, conditions are now being created for substantial progress in Ukraine’s accession talks. <\/p>\n

“It would be unfair for Ukraine to be present in the European Union but have no say,” the Ukrainian president said. <\/p>\n

At the same time, he stressed that now is the right time for the accession process to proceed “in a comprehensive and meaningful way”. <\/p>\n

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The letter was sent to the President of the European Council Antonio Costa<\/strong>, the President of the European Commission Orsula von der Leyen<\/strong> and the President of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides<\/strong>, as Cyprus holds the Presidency of the EU Council this semester.\u0395.. <\/p>\n

“Ukraine defends all of Europe”<\/h3>\n

Zelensky<\/strong> thanked European leaders for their support for Kiev since the start of the war, insisting that Ukraine acts as a shield against Russian aggression. <\/p>\n

“We are defending Europe – fully, not partially, and not with half-measures,” he said. <\/p>\n

Concluding his message, the Ukrainian president stressed that his country “deserves equal rights within Europe” and a fair treatment in the accession process. <\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a letter to EU leaders, has called the German proposal to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}