EU Plans to Open Single Market to Candidate Countries

The EU is proposing to let countries awaiting membership participate more deeply in its economy, tying that access to their willingness to support the bloc’s foreign policy and protect sensitive technologies from hostile governments and industrial competitors.

A draft European Commission review obtained by POLITICO sets out an approach that would bring trade, research and industrial benefits forward while accession negotiations continue.

Those privileges would remain conditional and could be revoked.

The proposal seeks to strengthen European supply chains and reduce strategic dependencies while giving countries facing lengthy membership processes a stronger economic incentive to stay aligned with Brussels.

Access With Strategic Conditions

The plan would expand participation in the single market where countries can demonstrate that their regulations meet EU requirements and that their authorities can enforce them.

Potential benefits include frictionless trade and admission to research programs.

Cooperation in semiconductors, quantum technologies, biotechnology, artificial intelligence and space is under consideration.

Access to sensitive industries would carry additional obligations covering investment screening, export controls, sanctions enforcement and technology protection.

Brussels would also assess vulnerabilities in infrastructure and supply chains, alongside countries’ strategic alignment. Participation could be narrowed where those safeguards fall short.

“Where these obligations are not fulfilled, participation must remain reversible. Access should be suspended or withdrawn where warranted,” the draft states.

The approach would give the EU a way to offer economic rewards before accession while retaining the ability to remove them for failures to uphold democratic commitments or protect sensitive technology.

A Longer Membership Queue

The review is being overseen by Alexandre Adam, a senior adviser to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and a former aide to French President Emmanuel Macron.

Its proposals would alter a system in which most economic advantages of integration arrive with membership.

Croatia’s accession in 2013 remains the bloc’s most recent enlargement.

Ukraine, Moldova, Albania and Montenegro would receive road maps intended to accelerate their accession preparations.

Progress elsewhere, including in North Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Türkiye, has been slower, fueling concern about disengagement or closer ties with Russia and China.

Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti called for greater access to EU markets, financing and cooperation programs, while warning against turning interim benefits into a permanent alternative.

“We support gradual integration, but it must be a pathway to full EU membership, not a parallel process or a substitute for it,” he told POLITICO.

Safeguards After Accession

The Commission also wants oversight to continue after countries join, addressing concerns that new members could reverse reforms or obstruct common policies.

Under former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Hungary used its veto to hold up sanctions against Russia and assistance to Ukraine.

“Institutions must work in practice, and reforms must endure,” the review says.

The draft argues that Brussels can prepare for a larger membership using powers already available under EU treaties.

Options include expanding majority voting in areas where unanimity allows individual governments to block decisions.

Treaty mechanisms known as passerelle clauses could facilitate sanctions, responses to human rights crises and civilian missions.

Activating those mechanisms, however, first requires unanimous agreement.

The review is scheduled to reach senior officials on October 6.

EU leaders are expected to discuss enlargement and benefits for countries still awaiting membership at a Brussels summit beginning October 15.