Zelenskyy Rejects Merz's Associate EU Status for Ukraine

The day's most consequential rebuff came from Kyiv. In a letter to European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, seen by dpa and Reuters, Volodymyr Zelenskyy formally rejected the "associate" EU membership status Chancellor Friedrich Merz had proposed earlier in the week. Zelenskyy wrote that it "would be unfair for Ukraine to be present in the European Union but remain without a voice," that the enlargement process was "taking too long," and that "Ukraine's place in the European Union must also be complete -- full and equal." Merz had argued in his own letter that "we will not be able to complete the accession process shortly, given the countless hurdles" and proposed a status with attendance at Council meetings but no vote, an "associate" commissioner without portfolio, and "associate" MEPs without voting rights. A German government spokesperson, cited by Reuters, framed the letter as opening "the necessary debate" and said there was "a high level of agreement" with Zelenskyy on the priority of opening negotiation chapters; Ukraine has held official candidate status since December 2023 and Hungary's Orban veto fell with last month's electoral defeat to Peter Magyar.

Former Chancellor Olaf Scholz will probably chair a new "North-South Committee" advising the government on the Global South, the Tagesspiegel reported, with a Development Ministry spokeswoman confirming to dpa that internal consultations on the chair were ongoing. The body's creation is written into the CDU-SPD coalition agreement; its remit is to advise on diversifying and intensifying relations with Global South partners and developing them into a network. Scholz served as chancellor from 2021 until May 2025; his three-party SPD/Greens/FDP coalition collapsed in November 2024 over an internal row on the economy, and the SPD's February 2025 result was the lowest in its postwar history. He remains in the Bundestag for a Brandenburg constituency near Berlin and stayed on as caretaker until Merz took office.

A five-member Bundestag delegation flew to Taiwan for a visit running May 24-31, 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. The trip arrives in the same week European officials at GLOBSEC in Prague worked on insulating NATO from the Trump White House's withdrawal of 5,000 US troops from Germany and the cancelled intermediate-range missile deployments, which Merz has publicly criticised.

Franziska Brantner, co-leader of the Greens, called for an explicit European nuclear deterrence debate built around a British-French nuclear umbrella, citing what she described as the declining reliability of the US shield under President Trump -- a striking position for a party historically opposed to nuclear weapons. Ten human rights organisations published the 2026 Fundamental Rights Report warning that Germany's rapid militarisation, including the €500 billion defence package, alongside cuts to development aid and refugee programmes, is eroding fundamental rights; the report also criticised border controls and migration policy. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told reporters he aimed to finalise return-centre agreements with EU partners and third countries by year-end, coordinating with Denmark and others -- the policy track that the rights report directly contests.

Former Schleswig-Holstein Minister-President Torsten Albig urged the SPD to drop its "firewall" against the far-right AfD and consider minority governments tolerated by the AfD; senior SPD politicians including Jochen Ott and Julian Barlen rejected the idea outright, accusing Albig of normalising the far right. The conversation lands inside a coalition whose CDU has dropped to about 23 percent in polling -- according to Euronews coverage of Merz's first anniversary in office, the chancellor faces 76 percent disapproval -- with the AfD leading ahead of state elections this autumn, the coalition holding a 12-seat parliamentary majority, and the federal government having halved its 2026 growth forecast to 0.5 percent ahead of a €4 billion pension cut.

The day's most concrete domestic story was technical. German hospital billing firm Unimed disclosed a mid-April breach in which attackers stole the data of tens of thousands of private and self-paying patients; at least 72,000 patients across four university hospitals are affected, with the full scope only emerging in recent days. The breach lands in the same regulatory year as Germany marked its 77th Verfassungstag, with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier calling on citizens to engage in voluntary work and democratic commitment; a separate 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 expected next year as Ukrainian refugees in Germany become eligible. The German Chamber of Industry and Commerce lowered its 2026 economic forecast, citing the continuing Middle East conflict.

Activists released from Israeli detention after the May 18 interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla included several German nationals who, according to organisers, reported being subjected to beatings, sexual assault and torture; the Federal Foreign Office said it was investigating reports of German citizens hospitalised after their treatment. Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul earlier in the week thanked Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar for his public rebuke of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir; France's entry ban on Ben-Gvir, announced by Jean-Noel Barrot on Saturday, opens the question of whether Berlin will follow.