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Bigger or Better?

Linking Voting Rights to Reform: A Staged Approach to EU Enlargement

Key Insights
  • Main question: How can the EU expand its borders via geopolitically urgent enlargement without causing paralysis in its decision-making voting system?
  • Argument: The EU must explicitly tie staged Council voting rights for candidate states to verified domestic milestones in democratic governance.
  • Conclusion: Conditioning institutional rights on rule-of-law reforms preserves the Union's strategic capacity to act as it grows.

By Andres Wickert

27 May 2026 · 21:44 CET· Updated 24 June 2026 · 21:18 CETIssue I
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1 min read

Andres Wickert Andres Wickert studies International Business Administration in Bamberg. Two semesters at Hanyang University in Seoul sparked his interest in East Asian and Indo-Pacific economics. He is engaged in a German-Korean policy network and the National Model United Nations

Cite this brief
Wickert, A. (2026). Bigger or Better?. EPIS Insight · International Relations & Diplomacy.
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