Following the summit in Tivat, the issue of the European Union’s enlargement model has once again come to the forefront. Five founding EU member states have proposed a model under which future members could join European institutions but with limited voting rights and stricter oversight mechanisms. While Brussels seeks a way to prevent decision-making deadlocks, candidate countries, including Serbia, are left wondering whether the path to full membership may become even more complicated.
Full membership, but not immediately and not under the same conditions as in the past. That is the essence of the proposal jointly put forward by Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The idea is for future member states to be gradually integrated into the work of the European Union, but with restrictions in areas where decision-making requires consensus.
The proposal comes at a time when Brussels is intensifying discussions on a new wave of enlargement. The focus is on Ukraine and Moldova, but also on the countries of the Western Balkans, many of which have been waiting years, and in some cases decades, for membership.
“Will clusters be opened solely on the basis of the European Commission’s opinion?”
Aleksandra Joksimović, President of the Centre for Foreign Policy, told Blic TV that for Serbia, the more important question at present is how to unblock its own accession negotiations.
“What remains unclear to me is whether clusters will now be opened solely on the basis of the European Commission’s opinion, or whether every member state will still have to approve the next step. We will see whether the procedure for opening clusters will be simplified. In that context, it is possible that we could meet certain requirements and move forward from what is currently a deadlock,” Joksimović stated.
“The agreement is not about removing voting rights or creating a separate category”
Former ambassador Branka Latinović pointed out that the agreement, whose drafting began last month, will serve as a major test and trial run that will show how the process develops in the coming period.
“From what I have read, this is not about taking away voting rights or placing countries into a different category. Rather, it is what they call the creation of a safeguard mechanism to prevent blockages in the work of the European Council and, consequently, of the European Union itself,” Latinović explained.
At the same time, the new approach could also bring certain benefits to candidate countries. States that have not yet become full members could gain earlier access to specific EU policies, institutions and programmes, allowing them to experience some of the advantages of membership before formal accession.
However, the question remains as to how attractive such arrangements will be to countries expecting full membership.
“For the European Union, it is extremely important to preserve the credibility of the enlargement process, given that this Commission has promised that enlargement will take place during its mandate. Therefore, I expect the EU will certainly do everything possible to ensure that at least one, if not two, countries become members before the end of its term. That will almost certainly be Montenegro, and possibly Albania as well,” Joksimović said.
“For Serbia, the opening of Cluster 3 is the most important issue”
Our second interlocutor recalled that Serbia has made little significant progress in its accession negotiations with the EU for almost five years. Key challenges remain reforms in the judiciary, electoral conditions and the establishment of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) Council, Latinović noted.
“I believe that, at this stage, the most important thing for us as a country engaged in the accession process, but experiencing a prolonged standstill, is to focus on fulfilling the obligations necessary to unblock that process and create the conditions for opening the much-discussed Cluster 3, and consequently the other clusters as well,” Latinović stated.
Although a final enlargement model has yet to be agreed upon by all EU member states, it is already clear that Brussels is seeking a way to accelerate the admission of new countries while avoiding the decision-making blockages that have slowed the Union in recent years.
For Serbia, however, the key factor remains unchanged. The pace of its European path will continue to depend primarily on the implementation of reforms, the interviewees concluded.
(Blic, 16.06.2026)