EU seeks to simplify accession process to revive enlargement

The European Council is seeking to simplify the European Union’s accession process in an effort to reinvigorate enlargement, its president, Antonio Costa, said ahead of a summit with Western Balkan countries in Montenegro.

In an interview with Euronews, Costa called for reforms to accelerate the bloc’s expansion and demonstrate to aspiring members that the EU is “serious” about turning their membership ambitions into reality.

“Now we have to vote <...> more than 40 times to go through the entire process,” Costa said, suggesting that the EU could “reduce the number of stages at which decisions are taken in order to simplify the procedure.”

Currently, EU accession requires unanimous approval by all member states at multiple stages, allowing governments to exercise veto power and potentially delay the process.

Costa proposed removing the requirement for unanimity when opening negotiations on individual chapters of the accession process, while retaining unanimous approval only for the formal closure of each chapter.

The EU enlargement framework consists of numerous procedural steps, each requiring consensus among member states, which has often led to prolonged delays. As a result, Western Balkan candidates have spent more than two decades awaiting membership and have reacted sensitively to discussions about potentially accelerating Ukraine’s accession, an option that was not seriously considered prior to 2022.

Accession negotiations are structured around 33 chapters, grouped into six clusters, covering areas including governance, economic policy, science, culture, foreign affairs and security. Candidate countries are required to fully align their domestic legislation with EU standards in each chapter, with negotiations focusing on timelines and methods of implementation rather than the substance of the rules themselves.

By Tamilla Hasanova