The European Union is considering a reform of the procedure for new member states to join, which could speed up Ukraine’s integration. This is reported by Politico.
Among the ideas being discussed is an option in which candidate countries would initially join the EU without voting rights. This could make the position of leaders such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban more flexible on the enlargement of the bloc. The initiative is in its early stages and requires the support of all member states.
According to the concept, new members will enjoy most of the EU’s benefits, but will receive full rights only after institutional reforms are carried out, including the transition to qualified majority decision-making.
“Future members are obliged to give up their veto rights until key institutional reforms, such as the introduction of qualified majority in most policy areas, are implemented. Enlargement should not be slowed down by blocking reforms by individual EU member states”, said Anton Hofreiter, chairman of the European Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag.
According to him, such an approach will allow candidate countries – Ukraine, Moldova, Montenegro and others – to access the EU’s benefits faster, without waiting for the completion of all internal reforms in the Union itself. Gofreiter added that this option is already receiving positive feedback from the Western Balkan countries.
The European Commission could propose to speed up enlargement by adopting interim decisions without the mandatory approval of all 27 member states. This would avoid blockages by governments like Hungary’s.
