The European Commission is preparing plans to grant European Union candidate countries some financial benefits while they wait for full membership as the process becomes bogged down in internal wrangling.

Under proposals currently being developed, candidate countries would gain access to selected EU funding programmes, preferential trade arrangements and parts of the Single Market as they implement reforms, before they get full membership in what has been described as a “membership-lite” scheme. Officials describe it as a strategy of "gradual integration", designed to reward progress while maintaining pressure for further reforms.

There are currently nine countries recognized as official candidates for EU membership: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

The initiative reflects growing concern within Brussels that accession negotiations are taking so long that some countries are losing interest. Turkey is in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described as the “perennial waiting room” to EU accession and has been there for 65 years. Several of the Balkan countries have been waiting for more than a decade and in North Macedonia’s case it is already more than two decades. Ukraine has been pushing for accelerated membership, joining as soon as 2027, but those hopes appeared to be scuppered by the EU’s decision this week to disengage its bid from that of Moldova which became a candidate country at the same time.

EU candidate countries
Country	Applied for EU membership	Official candidate since	Accession negotiations	Current status
Turkey	1987	1999	Opened 2005	Negotiations effectively frozen
North Macedonia	2004	2005	Opened 2022	Negotiating
Montenegro	2008	2010	Opened 2012	Most advanced candidate
Serbia	2009	2012	Opened 2014	Negotiating, progress slowed
Albania	2009	2014	Opened 2022	Negotiating
Ukraine	2022	2022	Opened 2024	Negotiating
Moldova	2022	2022	Opened 2024	Negotiating
Bosnia and Herzegovina	2016	2022	Not yet opened	Candidate awaiting negotiations
Georgia	2022	2023	Not yet opened	Candidate status stalled over rule-of-law concerns
source: IntelliNews

Unlike previous proposals for so-called "reverse enlargement", which envisaged granting political rights before accession and were rejected by member states, the new scheme would offer only economic benefits while leaving full political participation conditional on completing the accession process.

The proposals also acknowledge a political reality: while support for enlargement has increased dramatically since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, disunity in the EU is growing and many member states remain reluctant to admit new members.

"There must be some parallel, but necessary economic integration," said Petras Auštrevičius, the Lithuanian MEP who drafted the European Parliament's enlargement strategy, Politico reports. "The more-for-more principle is well tested and should be embraced as supporting those candidates who progress better than others."

Keeping candidates engaged

Commission officials hope the system will create stronger incentives for reforms by allowing countries gradually to "build up" access to EU benefits according to their progress in aligning with the bloc's legislation and institutions.

The flip side of the plan is it will allow the EU to spin out the accession process for longer, but at the same time tie partial members to Brussels more closely. Ukraine is a good example of the difficulties in bringing new members in: under existing rules, Ukraine would be entitled to agriculture subsidies of over €186bn every year, or roughly the entire EU budget spending. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) will need a root and branch reform to accommodate Ukraine as an EU member.

The plan is a work in progress and will be developed further at a European Council meeting in either October or December, Politico reports.

The proposal is particularly relevant for Ukraine, whose membership enjoys strong political backing following Russia's invasion but is nevertheless expected to take many years. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz already suggested to Zelenskiy a membership-lite option in April, which Zelenskiy has vigorously rejected.

“We are defending our shared European values. I believe that we deserve full membership in the EU," he told Merz.

Brussels believes gradual economic integration could help sustain political support in Kyiv without creating unrealistic expectations of rapid accession.

Moldova is already moving in this direction. Following meetings with Moldovan officials this week, the Commission said it would pursue both the country's accession and "deepening Moldova's gradual integration into the European Union." Chisinau has already secured access to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), EU mobile roaming arrangements and several cultural programmes.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has catalysed the expansion process. EU leaders agreed at a summit in Montenegro earlier this month that accession negotiations should accelerate, due to a view that bringing Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkans closer to the bloc has become a geopolitical priority as much as an economic one. Yet translating political commitment into institutional reform has proven to be a little more difficult.

Of the nine official candidate countries Montenegro is widely viewed as the most advanced applicant. Ukraine and Moldova have now opened accession negotiations on the six clusters. Serbia's accession talks have slowed amid concerns over democratic standards and foreign policy alignment, while Turkey's negotiations have effectively been frozen for years. Georgia's application has also stalled following democratic backsliding.