The “associate membership” formula in the EU…
Vita gazette – France and Germany have proposed a new “inner circle” of European Union membership, including a new outer membership tier.
The EU’s most influential capitals called for the “inner circle” of member states committed to the most radical reforms on defence, foreign policy and security. On Tuesday, Laurence Boone and Anna Lührmann, the European ministers of France and Germany, proposed a four-tiered European Union to integrate countries that aren’t “willing and able to join the EU in the foreseeable future”. Under the scheme, decision-making will be streamlined, and Brussels will be handed more powers to manage the expansion, which includes the western Balkans, by 2030.
A second tier would allow for “uncooperative, unwilling states offered opt-outs in the new treaty but with no exemptions” from the existing Lisbon Treaty commitments.
“Associate members would not be bound to ‘ever closer union’ and further integration, nor would they participate in deeper political integration in other policy areas such as justice and home affairs or EU citizenship,” the report commissioned by Paris and Berlin says. The essential requirement would be the commitment to comply with the EU’s common principles and values, including democracy and the rule of law,” the report adds.
“The core areas of participation would be the single market.”
It would not include a customs union with the EU, allowing countries like the UK to maintain an independent trade policy. Associate members would be represented by speakers inside the European Commission and Parliament without any voting rights on decisions over new single market rules and regulations. Details of the plan were contained in a 60-page report drawn up by experts commissioned by France and Germany and presented to EU ministers in Brussels.
The European Court of Justice
Because associate members would be completely aligned with the single market, they would be governed by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
It would give the European Commission powers to make legal challenges for alleged breaches of rules. Ultimately, any EU infringement proceedings could result in multi-million-pound fines by Brussels.
The EU budget
Under the Franco-German plan, the contributions would be at a “lower level” to cover institutional costs, such as pay for civil servants. The new membership bracket would be excluded from the EU’s costly Common Agricultural Policy and levelling up funds.
Migration
Associate members would be free from the burdens of participating in the EU’s justice and home affairs agenda. The post-Brexit deal with Brussels has already opened doors to other areas of cooperation, such as police intelligence sharing and international arrest warrants.
Representation
Associate members of the EU would not have a right to vote on planned legislation like a full member of the bloc. Instead, they would be offered a seat at the EU’s Council of Ministers meetings discussing new single market rules.
The Government would not be allowed to nominate a European Commission candidate to sit at the table of the bloc’s executive body, and voters would not be permitted to elect MEPs to the European Parliament.
The EU budget
Under the Franco-German plan, the contributions would be at a “lower level” to cover institutional costs, such as pay for civil servants. The new membership bracket would be excluded from the EU’s costly Common Agricultural Policy and levelling up funds.
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