New countries could join the European Union without full voting rights, wich could make leaders like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán more open to the idea of Ukraine becoming part of the bloc, Politico reports.
The proposal to change EU membership rules is in the early stages of consideration and would have to be approved by all current member states, Politico noted, citing three European diplomats and an EU official familiar with the discussions. The idea is that new members will get full rights after the EU overhauls the way it operates to make it harder for individual countries to veto the union’s policies.
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It is the latest attempt by pro-EU governments to breathe life into the enlargement process, which is currently blocked by Budapest and several other capitals over concerns that it could lead to unwanted competition in local markets or compromise security interests.The European Commission, the Nordic and baltic states, as well as the countries of Central Europe, have traditionally favored enlargement.
The EU has made enlargement a strategic priority amid Russian President Vladimir Putin’s expansionist agenda, even as efforts to increase the number of members from the current 27 to 30 over the next decade expose the bloc’s internal divisions.
Requiring that no new countries be allowed to join until the EU reforms how it operates risks “slowing down enlargement through the back door”, he saeid.
The pressure coincides with growing discontent in the candidate countries of Eastern Europe and the Western balkans, which have undertaken deep domestic reforms but are no closer to membership years after applying.In the case of Montenegro, EU accession negotiations began in 2012.
“The last country to join [the EU] was Croatia more than 10 years ago – and meanwhile,the United Kingdom left,” Montenegrin President Jakov Milatovic said in an interview with Politico. “That