European Commission supports Costa's plan to bypass Hungary's veto on Ukraine's EU bid
Kyiv • UNN
Brussels welcomed the plan by European Council President António Costa, which involves bypassing Hungary's veto to advance Ukraine's and Moldova's applications for EU membership. The proposal would allow voting on the opening of negotiation clusters by a qualified majority of member states.
Brussels on Monday welcomed European Council President António Costa's plan to bypass Hungary's veto and move forward with the consideration of Ukraine's and Moldova's applications for EU membership, UNN reports with reference to Politico.
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According to Costa's proposal, a qualified majority of the bloc's member states should vote to open negotiation clusters for the two countries. Current rules require all 27 EU member states to give their approval for each stage of the accession process.
"The possibility of empowering the (EU) Council to take decisions by qualified majority may be considered for certain intermediate steps in the enlargement process," said Guillaume Mercier, spokesman for the European Commission on Enlargement, on Monday.
Although Costa's plan still requires unanimous approval for a country's final accession, preserving the collective powers of EU countries in making the final decision, lowering the threshold for starting negotiations could break the deadlock and alleviate discontent in Kyiv and Chisinau, the publication notes.
This step will help candidate countries such as Ukraine and Moldova to start reforms in line with EU standards, even if one or two members officially oppose the start of negotiations.
EU diplomats see Costa's proposal as a way to overcome persistent obstacles from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose veto is hindering Ukraine's and Moldova's progress.
"When a country is delayed without objective reasons, despite meeting the criteria, the credibility of the entire enlargement process is at stake," Mercier said.
Supporting efforts to accelerate the process, the European Commission stressed that any decision to advance EU membership negotiations ultimately rests with the member states.
"The member states themselves must decide on the next steps, and we hope to open the first cluster as soon as possible," Mercier said.
Clusters are key stages of the EU accession process, grouping 35 negotiation chapters into six policy areas, such as fundamental rights, the internal market and competitiveness.
The European Commission expressed some openness to extending qualified majority voting in its policy review before enlargement, published last year, following calls from EU leaders to accelerate the accession process.
In her State of the Union address earlier this month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also stressed the need to move to a qualified majority system in certain areas, explicitly mentioning foreign policy, but leaving open the possibility for other areas.
As for whether EU enlargement falls into this category mentioned by von der Leyen, European Commission spokeswoman Paula Pinho said on Monday: "This can indeed be explored."