Ukraine in the EU, but… without the right of veto? The community is looking for a way to recruit new members

New countries could join the EU temporarily without the right of veto, the Politico website reported on Monday. An informal discussion on this topic is taking place within the European Commission and among Member States.

– Future members could waive their veto power until key institutional reforms are implementedsuch as the introduction of qualified majority voting for most policy areas, said Anton Hofreiter, head of the European Affairs Committee in the German Bundestag. – We cannot slow down enlargement because individual EU countries block reforms.

This is only an early stage of discussion about changing the rules of EU membership, and the proposal would require approval by all Community countries – emphasized Politico's sources.

The project, which assumes that newly admitted members would gain full rights after the completion of the EU reform process, is the latest attempt to revive the EU enlargement process, which has been blocked by Budapest and several other capitals.

The European Union has identified enlargement as a strategic priority in the context of Russia's expansionary policy, even though the desire to increase the number of member states from the current 27 to even 30 over the next decade exposes the bloc's internal divisions.

The idea behind this proposal is that admitting new countries without veto power would allow them to join without having to change the EU's core treaties, which several governments believe is impossible.

Previously, EU leaders emphasized that the EU would have to carry out reforms before admitting new members. However, attempts to abolish the veto power for current EU members have been met with strong opposition from Hungary, France and the Netherlands. The demand not to expand the Union before the reform is completed therefore creates a risk that the Community will be able to “block enlargement through the back door,” Hofreiter said.

At the same time, frustration is growing in candidate countries in Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans that have carried out far-reaching internal reforms but have not moved closer to membership many years after applying. In the case of Montenegro, EU accession negotiations started in 2012.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Taras Kaczka called for the adoption of “creative” solutions to unblock EU enlargement. Kiev's EU membership efforts are currently being held up by Hungary's veto. – We need a solution here and now. This is important for Ukraine, but also for the European Union. “I think that Russia, by putting European security to the test with drones, is doing the same by undermining the unity of the European Union,” he said.

Ahead of the Commission's upcoming assessment of the state of accession negotiations with individual candidate countries, an EU diplomat suggested that the Commission should continue negotiations without the need to obtain formal consent from all 27 EU countries. This would also avoid Orban's veto at every stage of the negotiations.

Membership in the European Union is often considered the Community's key geopolitical tool against aggressive Russia.

– When we look at enlargement today, one thing is clear: we must act faster, less bureaucratically and more effectively, Claudia Plakolm, Austria's minister for Europe, told Politico. – If the EU does not intensify its actions, we will lose our position to third parties that are already waiting to take our place. (PAP)

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