Brussels on Monday welcomed European Council President António Costa’s plan to bypass Hungary’s veto and press ahead with Ukraine and Moldova’s EU accession bids.
Under Costa’s proposal, first reported by POLITICO, a qualified majority of countries would vote to open so-called negotiating clusters for the two countries. Existing rules require all 27 EU member countries to green-light each stage of the accession process.
“The possibility of empowering the Council to decide by qualified majority could be explored for certain interim steps in the enlargement process,” Guillaume Mercier, European Commission spokesperson for enlargement, said Monday.
While Costa’s plan still requires unanimity to approve a country’s final accession — preserving the collective authority of EU nations over the ultimate decision — lowering the threshold to start talks could get things moving and alleviate frustration in Kyiv and Chișinău.
The move would help candidate countries, such as Ukraine and Moldova, to begin reforms to align with EU standards, even if one or two members officially oppose beginning negotiations.
EU diplomats see Costa’s proposal as a way to overcome repeated obstruction from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose veto has stalled Ukraine and Moldova’s progress.
“When a country is held back for no objective reasons, despite meeting the criteria, the credibility of the entire enlargement process is at risk,” Mercier said.
While supportive of efforts to accelerate the process, the Commission stressed that any decision to advance EU membership talks ultimately rests with member countries.
“It’s really for the member states to decide on the next steps, and we hope to open cluster one as soon as possible,” Mercier said.
Clusters are key steps in the EU accession process, grouping the 35 negotiation chapters into six policy areas such as fundamental rights, the internal market and competitiveness.
The Commission indicated some openness to extending qualified majority voting in its pre-enlargement policy review published last year, after calls from EU leaders for a faster accession process.
In her State of the Union speech earlier this month, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also highlighted the need to move toward QMV in certain areas, explicitly citing foreign policy — but leaving the door open to other fields.
Whether enlargement of the EU could fall under that category mentioned by von der Leyen, Commission chief spokesperson Paula Pinho said Monday: “That could indeed be explored.”
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