EU drafts plan to curb national vetoes in radical expansion reform

The European Commission is seeking a radical overhaul of decision-making in the EU enlargement process in order to bypass national veto rights.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will present a plan next week for the biggest change to the EU’s internal operations in decades, making a major announcement on how to prepare for a larger bloc of more than 30 members.

In doing so, von der Leyen will not make any changes to the Lisbon EU Treaty.

Two internal draft documents from the long-delayed enlargement strategy, examined by Rapporteur, propose using legal passerelle clauses to eliminate the requirement for unanimity among the 27 member states at multiple intermediate stages of candidate countries’ accession paths.

One of the documents, which will form the basis of the Commission president’s plan next week, states that the EU must become capable of acting with less consensus:

“Consensus strengthens political ownership and democratic legitimacy. But it can delay or prevent timely decisions in areas where the Union needs most to act.”

This measure: which itself requires unanimity: could significantly accelerate the accession processes of countries such as Ukraine, Montenegro, and North Macedonia, which have been struggling with blockades by a small number of EU members.

It is also likely to face resistance from existing member states wary of losing their veto power.

Nevertheless, the draft provides for an “emergency brake” that a government could trigger if it considers that “vital national interests” are under threat.

The Commission proposes applying the lower threshold of qualified majority voting: 15 countries representing two-thirds of the bloc’s population: across a wider spectrum of policy, including sanctions, human rights, defence and security, and tax evasion.

“As the Union enlarges, the risk of decisions being delayed or blocked will inevitably increase,” the internal document states.

To this end, the Commission will “prepare a work programme for the use of passerelle clauses.”

“Passerelle clauses” are transition provisions in the EU treaties that permit voting rules in specific policy areas to be changed permanently from unanimity, where all countries can exercise a national veto, to qualified majority voting.

However, with no indication that the EU will abandon the requirement for unanimity at the very beginning and at the end of a candidate country’s accession process, radical changes to EU decision-making will encounter obstacles.

Another contentious proposal would mean that only two-thirds of EU countries could appoint a European Commissioner once the bloc expands.

Under the current 27-member bloc, nine countries would be forced to relinquish their right to send a representative to Brussels.

This prospect is expected to unsettle smaller member states, which have historically argued that their influence in Brussels diminishes as the bloc expands.

Ireland, having lost a referendum in 2008, secured a legal guarantee that “the Commission shall continue to include one national of each member state”, but Dublin would have to surrender this safeguard.

According to the draft documents, new members could be placed on probation for a decade or more. During this period, they would face stricter oversight from Brussels.

Penalties that could be imposed during this probationary period include the suspension of voting rights in the Council and financial sanctions under newly created “financial” and “institutional safeguard” provisions.

New member states would be required to sign a legally binding “interim commitment” not to block decisions agreed upon by the rest of the EU.

In addition, standard transitional safeguards regarding participation in core EU policy areas, ranging from justice and home affairs to agriculture, would be retained.

New member states would also be subject to time-limited “financial safeguard” provisions allowing the Commission to penalise them in the event of backsliding on democratic and judicial standards.

Prior to accession, new members would also be required to join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which investigates fraud involving EU funds.