Five EU countries float safeguards for future bloc members

The European Union should discuss the option of temporarily limiting some voting rights of the bloc’s future new members and creating more rule-of-law safeguards, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg wrote in a joint paper seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

With Montenegro hoping to join the EU in 2028 and Albania, Ukraine and Moldova pushing to make progress on their accession bids, discussions are ongoing among European governments about whether rules for new members should change.

Some capitals are now pushing for the EU to develop stronger safeguards for future members, due in part to the bloc's experience with democratic backsliding in Hungary under previous Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The paper outlined possible options that could be written into future accession treaties, including a new monitoring mechanism and a safeguard clause which would allow measures to be taken in case of serious backsliding in areas such as democracy and media freedom.

"The EU should have an in-depth discussion on the possibility of temporary, transitional limitations of voting rights for new Member States, in particular parts of the EU-acquis where unanimity is required," the five countries wrote, pointing to enlargement, foreign policy, and EU budget decisions where consent of all member countries is currently needed.

Cyprus, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, said last week it had started preparing to formally open negotiation on the first group of negotiating chapters, which cover rule-of-law and democratic standards, with Ukraine and Moldova.

"Ukraine belongs in the EU. All six accession clusters should be opened without delay. NATO must remain on the table as the strongest security guarantee," Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal said on X after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday in Tallinn.

-Reporting by Lili Bayer Additional reporting by Jekaterīna Golubkova in Tokyo; Editing by Gareth Jones and Lincoln Feast./Reuters