Germany and France have proposed giving aspiring European Union members more opportunities to join EU programs and access the single market before joining the bloc, according to a discussion paper seen by Reuters.
The paper says it is intended to inject new momentum into discussions on enlarging the 27-member bloc ahead of a summit between EU and Western Balkan leaders on Friday and another summit with Moldova later this month.
Enlargement has risen up the EU agenda due to Russia’s war against Ukraine, with Kyiv keen to join the bloc to anchor itself in Europe’s political mainstream.
But the process for joining the bloc is usually long and bureaucratic, involving years of negotiations and legal reforms, which has prompted EU officials to look for ways to offer more tangible benefits to candidate countries before that journey is complete.
“We must provide additional incentives as part of a merit-based, gradual integration process and streamline the current process to make it more efficient and to allow for faster and deeper integration,” the Franco-German paper says.
