The European Commission presented plans to prepare for the expansion of the bloc to include Eastern European countries over the next few years. As the EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos emphasizes, the idea is to protect ourselves against leaders blocking the activities of the European Union, such as the former Prime Minister of Hungary. No more Viktor Orban, says Kos.
"We need to have faster mechanisms than just Article 7 (which allows for the suspension of a member state's voting rights - editor's note) if new members would oppose the rule of law, democracy or our values," he adds.
What does the 15-year probation period involve?
Under plans published by Kos on Tuesday, each new EU member state will have to undergo a 15-year trial period. During this time, they may be deprived of their voting rights or EU funds for violating fundamental democratic values or the principle of sincere cooperation within the EU. Now the EC's plans will have to be accepted by EU member states.
Article 7 of the EU Treaty allows Member States to withdraw the voting rights of a Member State that commits a "serious and persistent breach" of democratic values. However, this so-called the nuclear option was never implemented - even though such a threat loomed over Poland during the PiS government and over Hungary during Viktor Orban's government. The final sanction was never implemented, mainly because Warsaw and Budapest then used their veto power to protect each other.
Under the new proposals, the threshold for suspending voting rights - or other penalties - for violating democratic standards would be lowered.
Limitation of the unanimity rule
Moreover, as Euronews writes, the European Commission proposes fewer commissioners and a reduction in the unanimity rule to prepare the Union for 30 or more countries.
Kos admitted that the positions in the EU are very divergent on this matter. It won't be easy, but it's worth trying, she said. She pointed out that unanimity could be reached less often in the accession processes themselves.
Our proposal aims to make the decision-making process more effective. The suggestion is to increase the use of qualified majority voting, which in itself is nothing new. What is new is that we propose to limit the number of decisions requiring unanimity in the accession process, Kos explained.
Unanimity is required to grant candidate status to a country and to conclude negotiations. Between these stages, however, the current methodology gives each member state veto power at over 150 stages.
Commissioner not for every country
To avoid deadlock in a potential 35-member EU, governments will be asked to waive veto rights on issues such as tax and sanctions policy - and to accept that they will not always have an EU representative in Brussels.
Attempts to reduce the size of the European Commission have faced opposition in the past, especially from Irish voters who rejected the Lisbon Treaty in 2008, partly because of their opposition to the loss of Ireland's permanent representative. Ireland voted for the treaty the following year. This comes after EU leaders pledged to keep one commissioner from each member state in the EU's executive body.
