The European Union is discussing a new proposal to revise its membership rules, allowing new countries to join the bloc without obtaining full voting rights. This was reported by Baltimore Chronicle with reference to Politico.
According to three European diplomats and an EU official familiar with the ongoing talks, the idea envisions that new member states would gain full rights — including the right of veto — only after the bloc carries out institutional reforms aimed at limiting individual nations’ ability to block collective decisions.
This proposal could ease resistance among current EU members that have been reluctant to support further enlargement. Such an approach might help overcome opposition from states like Hungary, which continues to block Ukraine’s accession process.
Anton Hofreiter, head of the German Bundestag’s Committee on European Affairs, said that future members should temporarily give up their veto rights until key institutional reforms are implemented. He emphasized that introducing qualified majority voting in most policy areas would help prevent individual countries from obstructing EU-wide decisions.
Sources cited by Politico noted that the initiative would allow candidate countries — including Ukraine, Moldova, and Montenegro — to enjoy many of the benefits of EU membership without full decision-making powers. This would serve as a transitional stage toward full membership.
Currently, the proposal is being informally discussed among EU member states and the European Commission. To take effect, it would require unanimous approval from all EU countries.
The proposed approach aims to make the enlargement process more flexible and avoid reopening the bloc’s founding treaties — a politically sensitive and time-consuming process that many governments consider undesirable. EU leaders have long maintained that institutional reform is necessary before admitting new members, but efforts to abolish veto powers have faced opposition not only from Hungary but also from France and the Netherlands.
Earlier we wrote that US President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to Meet in Budapest to Discuss Ending the War in Ukraine.
