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
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
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.