Countries that have been waiting for years to join the European Union (EU) are divided over plans being developed in Brussels that would allow them to become members without the usual full voting rights. Some membership candidates from Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans insist on receiving all the benefits of the bloc, while others would be “happy just to be at the table.”
In order to ease the concerns of current members that a larger EU would make unanimous decision-making more difficult, the European Commission is considering the possibility that new members would obtain full voting rights only after the Union revises the way it functions. This would make it harder for individual members to use the veto right and would prevent the obstruction of EU policy.
The plan to reduce voting rights was launched late last year by officials and pro-EU governments in order to revive the enlargement process, which is also being blocked by Budapest and several other capitals due to fears that it would bring unwanted competition to local markets or jeopardize security interests.
Hungary has repeatedly threatened to veto Ukraine’s accession to the EU.
In addition to other issues that require the involvement of all EU countries, new members could initially have their right to block sanctions limited, given that EU leaders are currently losing time dealing with veto threats from the populist governments of Hungary and Slovakia.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said that Brussels’ idea is a good one and that his country, which has opened all negotiating clusters in a short period of time, would even agree to not having its own EU commissioner for a certain period.
As he said, Albania does not want to challenge the will of the large founding members, such as France and Germany. “After all, the adults in the family make the important decisions,” Rama said, adding that one advantage for smaller members is that if the big ones make mistakes, the new countries will not be blamed.
Salome Zurabishvili, the last directly elected president of Georgia, said that in talks with EU officials she advocated such an approach. The ruling Georgian Dream party has since stripped her of her role, which Brussels condemned, and membership negotiations with the country have been suspended due to the threat of democratic backsliding.
“As a small country, it is clear that it is in our interest to be part of the community, the family, part of EU programmes, rather than to be equal decision-makers with countries that have been there from the start and are far more powerful,” Zurabishvili said, adding that this is logical if you want an organisation that can make decisions efficiently.
Moldova, whose application for membership is linked to Ukraine’s, wants first to see the details of the EU proposal. A senior Moldovan official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Moldova would gladly take part in discussions on this issue within the EU. “At the same time, full membership, with equal rights and full participation in EU decision-making, must remain a clear and ultimate goal,” the official said.
Ukraine is also not quite ready to support Brussels’ idea. “If we are talking about EU membership, it must be full,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in November.
Montenegro, which has made the most progress on the path to membership, also argues that there is no need to reconsider the conditions and expects to complete the accession process this year. Montenegrin President Jakov Milatovic said that the EU already had 28 members before Brexit. “In that sense, if Montenegro becomes the 28th EU member by 2028, the answer (to the question of whether reforms are needed) is no… But this is a question that EU leaders need to answer,” Milatovic said.
European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos said that concrete proposals would be presented in February or March. She added that a “completely new element” is creating urgency. “We have external destructive forces that would like to see our failure; they are working against our candidates, but we (the EU) are their main target,” Kos said. According to her, the Commission will have to develop in detail a plan for reduced voting rights for new members before presenting it to national leaders and before it likely becomes a topic at European Council summits. The issue also needs to be assessed by lawyers to see how it fits within EU treaties.
The Commissioner also said that, although candidates are deeply engaged in the reforms required for membership, work is still needed to convince existing members that sufficient safeguard measures will be in place. “Negotiations are the technical part; we must consider the political part, and that is up to the member states,” Marta Kos said.
