Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg want stronger safeguards to act faster against democratic and legal breaches in future EU members. The proposal reflects the lessons learned from the Orbán era.
Alt source Reuters
Honestly the EU should replace vetoes with qualified majority in a lot more cases. That would help a lot more.
CONTEXT: In recent years, the EU has struggled to rein in democratic backsliding in several countries that joined the bloc in 2004, most notably Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
The crisis has exposed the limited leverage Brussels retains once the accession process—already defined by exceptionally high admission standards—is completed.
PROPOSAL 1 ( leverage against backsliding by freezing funds) The paper aims to create leverage in the years immediately after accession by codifying a “non-regression clause” as a “binding norm” for new member states. Should regression happen, the EU would be empowered to take “protective measures” beyond the tools it has today, namely the infringement procedure and the freezing of funds.
PROPOSAL 2 ( no vetopower by a majority vote suspension) Additionally, the document proposes to simplify Article 7 of the EU treaties to deal with serious breaches of fundamental values.The document says the suspension of voting rights should be possible with just a 4/5th majority to enable faster action if a new member backslides.
The removal of the veto is the removal of a fundamental value, is it not?
I wouldnt say so, it was meant to ensure unity among the 6 original members… There are now 27? So that would be the equivalent to 4-5 vetos now.
Imagine having a contintent of 500 million people be derailed because russia, china, or the usa decided to bribe a leader of a country with half a million people to stall all progress in the EU.
In this case Orban has already proven that ‘perfection’ is the enemy of progress.
I do think that countries that stop meeting the EUs requirements for democracy should not get to vote on things, why shouldnt a country that doesnt value democracy get to take part in one? But this would only really help in the case of Hungary and i think Poland
Is that mean Ukraine needs longer time? That will be bad for Ukraine
that mean Ukraine needs longer time?
Nothing changes for the ascension of potential memberstates, like Moldova, Ukraine, Monte Negro. The requirements so far haven’t changed.
It’s only when new members " go Orbán" or rogue, after becoming full member that the EU could gain some power to fight the rogue member state, if this proposal or an ammendment of it is accepted
