A joint proposal by Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg advocates stronger safeguards enabling the European Union to act more quickly against ‘democratic and legal breaches’ by future member states, reportedly in an effort to avoid a so-called ‘Orbán repeat’.
According to Euronews, the five countries propose equipping the EU with additional tools to respond more swiftly to member states that ‘violate fundamental rights and democratic principles’, citing the renewed urgency of the enlargement process. Ukraine and Moldova are scheduled to open the first negotiating cluster on 15 June after Hungary’s new government lifted the country’s long-held veto on the process imposed under former prime minister Viktor Orbán.
The proposal recommends strengthening the accession treaties of future member states with various safeguard clauses designed to address legal breaches and enable swift penalties, including the suspension of funds and voting rights.
New members should also have their veto powers restricted for an undefined transitional period in order to prevent sudden blockages of high-priority decisions, the document argues. Foreign policy remains one of the areas in which the EU requires unanimity.
‘New members should also have their veto powers restricted’
‘Enlargement should not go to the detriment of our capacity to act,’ a diplomat quoted by Euronews said.
During the 16-year rule of Viktor Orbán and Fidesz–KDNP, Hungary increasingly found itself at odds with the European Union on many of the bloc’s most important challenges, from migration to the war in Ukraine. Orbán frequently used Hungary’s veto power to gain leverage in negotiations, which critics argued gave Budapest influence disproportionate to its political and economic weight.
At the same time, Orbán and his successive governments fundamentally reshaped Hungary’s political and legal system, centralizing power and weakening the influence of other state institutions, civil society, and independent actors. In response, the EU launched numerous legal proceedings against Hungary and froze billions of euros in funding.
The paper proposes a new safeguard centred on the ‘principle of sincere cooperation’, the same principle Orbán was recently accused of violating after reversing Hungary’s support for a €90 billion EU loan package for Ukraine. The package had been agreed in December 2025 but was later vetoed by Orbán in 2026 amid escalating bilateral tensions between Budapest and Kyiv.
The initiative is deliberately timed to influence the accession treaty currently being drafted for Montenegro, widely regarded as the frontrunner among candidate countries. The five governments argue that the Montenegrin treaty should serve as a blueprint for future enlargements, including those involving Ukraine, Moldova, Albania, North Macedonia, and Serbia.
The document also proposes longer transitional periods in areas such as agricultural subsidies, cohesion funding, and the free movement of workers, reflecting concerns among some member states about the economic impact of future enlargement, particularly in the case of Ukraine.
At the heart of the proposal lies a new ‘non-regression clause’, which would be incorporated into accession treaties as a legally binding obligation. Under the mechanism, new member states would be prohibited from rolling back democratic standards, judicial independence, or fundamental rights after joining the bloc.
‘New member states would be prohibited from rolling back democratic standards, judicial independence, or fundamental rights after joining the bloc’
Should such backsliding occur, Brussels would be empowered to impose additional ‘protective measures’ beyond the instruments currently available, such as infringement procedures and the suspension of EU funds. The exact nature of these new sanctions remains undefined.
The five countries also advocate a significant reform of Article 7 of the EU treaties, often referred to as the bloc’s ‘nuclear option’. At present, suspending a member state’s voting rights requires unanimous support from all other member states, a threshold that proved impossible to reach in proceedings against both Hungary and Poland. The proposal would lower this requirement to a four-fifths majority, making it substantially easier for the EU to sanction governments accused of violating the bloc’s fundamental values.
The initiative reflects a broader shift in thinking within parts of the European Union as enlargement returns to the top of the political agenda. While supporters argue that stronger safeguards are necessary to prevent future democratic backsliding and institutional paralysis, critics are likely to view the proposal as a further step towards limiting national sovereignty and weakening the influence of smaller member states within the bloc.
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