In the new draft of conclusions for the European Summit on 18 December, obtained by Agence Europe, a new line has appeared in the section relating to enlargement. The text now states that “as the enlargement process is moving forward, the European Council invites the Commission to present its in-depth policy reviews so that this work advances in parallel”.
In fact, the text refers to Member States’ expectation of a presentation by the European Commission of the impact that the future integration of one or more new members would have on the functioning of the Union.
The issue of internal reform has become central, at a time when the accession process is accelerating for several candidate countries, such as Albania and Montenegro (see EUROPE 13774/30).
The challenge is to make the European institutions function successfully with an enlarged Union of more than 30 members, while the principle of the right of veto could lead to recurring cases of a single member being blocked for geopolitical reasons, as is already the case with Hungary on certain issues (see EUROPE 13774/29).
The European Parliament is calling for a reform of the composition of the European institutions and the rules on qualified majority voting to give “more weight” to the smallest Member States. MEPs also want the European Council to follow up Parliament’s initiation of the ordinary institutional reform procedure provided for in Article 48 of the Treaty (see EUROPE 12968/17).
However, according to several diplomatic sources, no decision will be taken at the European Summit on the specific issue of enlargement and reform. Discussions on the subject will be mainly strategic, but could become recurrent as the candidate countries make progress.
See the draft conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/k1d (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)