Internal Document of German Government Revealed Opposition to Ukraine's Path to NATO – Bild

An internal governmental document confirms that the federal government is blocking a decision in favour of Ukraine on its path to NATO.

According to Bild, referring to the document and people familiar with the talks, negotiators from the NATO countries have been negotiating the final document of the NATO summit in Vilnius for days. According to the publication, while numerous states, led by France, the UK and Poland, support an invitation for Ukraine once a ceasefire with Russia comes into force, Germany and the USA did not support such a plan until the weekend.

Instead, Berlin and Washington advocated compliance with the "Membership Action Plan" formulated for Ukraine in 2008. These are numerous steps and conditions that Kyiv must have met before being invited to join NATO. This includes not only peace with Russia, but also political and economic reforms.

At the same time, according to a confidential German government document, the US "declared its agreement to forego a Membership Action Plan for Ukraine on the condition of further reforms".

"What we wanted to offer Ukraine was the Finland model, i.e. accession within months as soon as the war is over," the unnamed diplomat told Bild.

In contrast, the document of the German government states that the Scholz government "will not agree to any wording that would create the impression of a "fast track" to the accession of Ukraine." For the German government, "revision of the Bucharest decision of 2008" is "out of the question".

That is why Germany will not accept "neither an invitation" nor "Ukraine's legitimate place in NATO" in the NATO final document.

Ultimately, Berlin is "ready to examine compromise language" for Ukraine's future NATO accession, "although the conditions for this have not yet been met". It is therefore possible that the federal government will also agree to the formally cancel the Membership Action Plan – but without agreeing to the "fast track" for Ukraine at the end of the war."

The newspaper also learned that on Monday evening negotiators from Germany and other countries will gather in Vilnius and try compromise regarding Ukraine before the arrival of the heads of state and government.

"In the worst case, the heads of government will have to join the negotiations on Tuesday," said one of the diplomats.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba said earlier on Monday that after a discussion, NATO member states have agreed to cancel the Membership Action Plan for Ukraine's accession to the Alliance.

Gitanas Nausėda, President of Lithuania, has confirmed that the NATO member states have reached a consensus and decided to drop the requirement for a Membership Action Plan (MAP) for Ukraine on its way to accession to NATO.