The EU plans to limit the veto power of new members in order to simplify the accession process

The European Union is considering temporarily stripping future member states of their veto power for the first few years after they join the bloc. This move is intended to make the EU’s large-scale expansion more “politically acceptable” to current members and to safeguard internal processes from potential blockages. 

This is reported by The Guardian.

According to plans currently being developed by the European Commission, new members of the union (in particular Moldova and the countries of the Western Balkans) will not initially have the automatic right to veto strategic decisions concerning common foreign policy, taxation, and other areas where absolute unanimity among all member states is traditionally required.

This initiative has become particularly relevant in light of Montenegro’s progress toward European integration; the country is one of the main favorites for accession and plans to officially become the 28th member of the European Union by 2028. In the future, this restrictive mechanism is also planned to be applied to the remaining candidate countries during subsequent waves of enlargement.

The main catalyst for developing such preventive measures was Brussels’ “difficult experience” in its relations with Hungary. The pro-Russian course of the country’s previous government, led by Viktor Orbán, repeatedly led to the blocking of critically important EU decisions, including a veto on the allocation of a large-scale financial loan to Ukraine in the amount of 90 billion euros.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz proposed introducing a new “associated membership” format for Ukraine within the EU until it obtains full membership status. 

The head of Italy’s Foreign Ministry officially confirmed that his country fully supports granting Ukraine full membership in the European Union.