Seven countries are insisting on the “equality of member states upon accession"
Italy, and six other countries who back EU membership for the Western Balkans, have pushed back against a Franco-German, Benelux move to build new and restrictive legal safeguards into accession treaties for future members.
A diplomatic paper last month – from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg – proposed probationary bans on new member states from voting on budgetary, security and foreign policy decisions.
Italy – with Austria, Croatia, Czechia, Greece, Slovakia and Slovenia– have pushed back in a grouping known as the “Friends of the Western Balkans”.
“The paper rejects any approach that could foster the perception of “second-class” candidacies or membership,” said the text, urging “the uniform application of negotiating procedures to all candidates, without fast-track arrangements or parallel tracks”.
