EU floats "gradual integration" and stronger rule-of-law safeguards for enlargement

The European Commission is preparing enlargement-reform proposals — "gradual integration" letting candidates taste membership benefits before full accession, plus beefed-up safeguards against democratic backsliding once inside, an explicit lesson from Orbán's Hungary. Merz has separately floated an "associate membership" tier for Ukraine.

A live test of whether an expanding club can protect its own rules, directly analogous to Brexit-era sovereignty and conditionality arguments, and relevant to the UK-EU "reset" debate.