EU leaders task officials with shaping enlargement ‘proposals’ previously pushed by member states and EP

Brussels, 16 October 2026, dtt-net.com – Heads of state and government of the 27 EU member states agreed Friday to task officials in their respective capitals with reviewing a European Commission (EC) proposal on additional rules for enlargement of the bloc, which builds upon older concepts that have circulated for some time within member states and the European Parliament (EP). These ideas include introducing qualified majority voting (QMV) for opening and closing negotiating clusters with candidate countries, while still allowing member states to maintain veto powers over the final opening and closing of accession talks. During the summit held in Brussels, EU leaders recalled that the accession process remains "merit-based and that each candidate country advances in its accession negotiations on the basis of its individual progress." They called on their respective governments to "analyse all strands and, on the basis of this analysis," review the draft presented earlier this month by the EC, titled “Preparing for a Wider Union.”