Nauseda proposes qualified majority for EU membership talks with Ukraine

VILNIUS - Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has suggested that the European Union could adopt decisions on new stages of membership negotiations with Ukraine and other candidate countries by qualified majority.

Currently, such decisions require the unanimous consent of all member states, but Ukraine’s European Union membership talks have stalled due to objections from Hungary.

Nauseda said the final decision on European Union enlargement could still be made unanimously by all member states.

"I believe that we should apply the principle of qualified majority sequentially, specifically that (...) negotiating chapters with candidate countries could be opened by qualified majority decisions," Nauseda told the Verslo Zinios business news website.

"Meanwhile, the decision on enlargement itself should be made unanimously. This would be a kind of differentiation - in one case we apply the qualified majority model, in the other - unanimity," he said.

The president acknowledged that his considerations are prompted by the fact that "one or two states" use the principle of unanimity in European Union decision-making to "make decision-making generally impossible."

According to Nauseda, his proposed model would preserve unanimity only for truly strategic and essential European Union decisions.

Hungary has recently also blocked decisions on aid to Kyiv and sanctions against Russia. Budapest says Ukraine’s membership in the European Union would pose security risks and that admitting a belligerent country would drag Hungary into a conflict with Russia.

Kyiv submitted its application for European Union membership shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022, seeking rapid integration. Lithuania hopes Ukraine will join the European Union by 2030.