With EU accession high on the agenda this week, discussions have turned to “safeguard” clauses that will apply to new members, effectively depriving them of national vetoes for a probation period of over 15 years.
The proposals were endorsed by enlargement commissioner Marta Kos, with the backing of France, Germany, and other EU countries, and will impose limits on voting in budgetary, security, and foreign policy decisions.
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The decision to begin a new round of formal membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova comes as a growing number of national governments have demanded protective measures if new member states reverse reforms on democracy, the rule of law, or press freedom.
“This will be a new generation of accession treaties in the sense that we will have new safeguards,” said Kos. The decision comes in the context of Budapest’s refusal to back a €90 billion loan package for Ukraine earlier this year – Hungary having joined the Union in 2004.
See the original from Euractiv’s The Brief here.
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