Ukraine reacts directly to Scholz' EU words - FDP expert calls Merz "uninformed"

Created: 05/20/2022, 05:20

By: Bettina Menzel

Scholz rejects Ukraine's rapid EU accession process - Kyiv reacts promptly and complains of "second-class treatment".

News ticker.

• Germany's role in the Ukraine conflict

  : Kiev criticized "second-class treatment" after Scholz rejected EU accession in an emergency procedure.

• After

  Friedrich Merz

  's criticism of the lack of arms deliveries:

  Strack-Zimmermann describes the CDU boss as

  "uninformed"

• Weapons for the Ukraine

  : Germany and the Netherlands do not want to deliver more than twelve Panzerhaubitzen 2000.

• This 

  news ticker on reactions from Germany to the Russia-Ukraine war

   is continuously updated.

Update from May 19, 8:52 p.m .: For

the time being, Germany and the Netherlands do not want to deliver more than the twelve 2000 self-propelled howitzers already promised to Ukraine.

During Chancellor Scholz's inaugural visit to The Hague on Thursday, the two heads of government did not say when the first howitzers with a range of 40 kilometers could be delivered.

The German Chancellor pointed out that the heavy artillery pieces "cannot be easily made available".

Alongside the Gepard anti-aircraft tanks, the self-propelled howitzers are the first heavy weapons that Germany intends to deliver to the Ukrainian war zone.

The Bundeswehr is also training Ukrainian soldiers to operate the modern guns.

Scholz rejects Ukraine's rapid EU accession: "Not a matter of a few months or a few years"

First report:

Berlin - In his government statement at the special EU summit at the end of May, Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected Ukraine's accession to the EU in an urgent procedure.

Scholz referred to French President Emmanuel Macron.

He had previously pointed out that the entry procedure into the European Union was "not a matter of a few months or a few years".

In fairness to other accession candidates, there should be “no shortcuts” to the EU, Scholz said on Thursday morning (May 19).

The answer from Kyiv came promptly.

Just minutes after Scholz's speech ended, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted that Ukraine did not need a "replacement for EU candidate status," which shows "second-class treatment of Ukraine" and "the Feelings of Ukrainians hurt”.

The "strategic ambiguity" practiced by some EU capitals in recent years in relation to Ukraine's European perspective has failed and must be ended, said Kuleba with a view to his country's EU accession.

"That only gave Putin courage," the Ukrainian foreign minister accused.

Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz during his government statement on Thursday (May 19) in the Bundestag in Berlin.

© IMAGO / Political Moments

Ukraine conflict and arms deliveries: Chairwoman of the Defense Committee criticizes CDU leader Merz as "uninformed"

Following Olaf Scholz's government statement on Thursday morning, CDU leader Friedrich Merz was critical.

The Union faction leader accused the chancellor of "double play" in the Ukraine war because he promised military support for Ukraine but actually prevented deliveries of heavy weapons.

"The truth is that almost nothing has been delivered for weeks," says Merz.

The announced ring exchange of weapons has also not taken place so far.

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Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann heads the Defense Committee of the German Bundestag.

On May 13, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz attended the meeting of the committee (archive photo).

© Leon Kuegeler/photothek.de/Imago

The chairwoman of the Defense Committee of the German Bundestag, Marie Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), sharply criticized Merz for his statements.

"I'm surprised that Friedrich Merz said that," said the FDP politician to the TV station Welt.

"Friedrich Merz should have sat down with his defense politicians before his speech.

Then he would know that the whole thing works.

That we are training Ukrainian soldiers and that these heavy weapons are being prepared.” The CDU politician was “uninformed”, Strack-Zimmermann continued.

"And I recommend a parliamentary group leader to ask his specialist politicians before he says something like that."