English
The European Commission today released a discussion paper on future enlargement, offering candidate countries gradual integration but including safeguard clauses to ensure new members honor their negotiation commitments. In the document “Preparations for an Enlarged Union,” the Commission proposes guidelines and practical steps for future enlargement.
Candidate countries could participate in certain EU policies even before formally becoming members, provided they meet the necessary conditions. This aims to help them strengthen their administrative capacity and accession readiness, while delivering tangible benefits to citizens and businesses in both the EU and the pre-enlargement countries. The Commission decided to propose gradual integration after member states rejected the concept of “reverse membership”—under which a candidate country would formally and legally become an EU member much faster than the standard process allows, yet would not enjoy certain rights and benefits until all membership criteria were met.
The Commission proposes including safeguard mechanisms in future accession treaties to allow for the penalization of new members should they backslide on democratic standards or violate the principles and values upon which the EU is founded. In the most serious cases, this could even lead to the suspension of voting rights. The EC proposal includes a set of sectoral safeguards in three areas—the economy, the internal market, and justice and home affairs—which were also present in previous accession treaties but could only be activated within a maximum of three years of EU accession. According to EC sources, this period could now be extended to 10 or even 15 years.
A new non-institutional safeguard clause is also proposed, to be triggered in the event of a serious breach of the fundamental values upon which the EU is founded and the principle of sincere cooperation. The EC proposes that the decision to activate this safeguard clause could be taken without the consent of all member states. The proposal also stipulates that new EU member states must commit not to exercise their veto right regarding decisions on future EU enlargement due to bilateral disputes.
To accelerate accession negotiations, the EC recommends using qualified majority voting for opening negotiating clusters, closing chapters, and other steps, while unanimity would remain a requirement for concluding the accession process.
The EC proposes limiting agricultural subsidies and restricting access to sensitive agricultural products for Ukraine, in order to protect farmers in France and Poland. The European Commission will release the 2026 EU enlargement package, containing progress reports on candidate countries, on October 28. Within this package, it will also publish outlines for the four candidates that have advanced the furthest in the accession process—Montenegro, Albania, Moldova, and Ukraine—provided they maintain reform momentum. These specific plans will also include indicative timelines for the individual stages of the accession process.