In recent weeks, much of the debate in Europe has focused on enlargement.
On Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkans. On candidate countries seeking to move closer to the European Union, and the conditions they must meet before joining the club. But anyone who is serious about enlargement must also be willing to ask a more difficult question: is the European Union itself ready to grow? If we want to welcome new countries, Europe first needs to look under its own hood.
There is a second reality we need to confront. In recent years, Viktor Orbán has shown how a single head of government can slow down or block a Union of 450 million people. It would be a mistake to think this was purely a Hungarian problem. The next leader to obstruct European decision-making could come from any member state. Perhaps even from one of the largest.
On 18 April 2027, France will elect a new president. If the polls are anything to go by, a new political wind will blow through the Élysée Palace afterwards, and it will not necessarily be one that is better for the European Union.
We would therefore be wise not to wait for the next political conflict to expose Europe’s institutional limitations once again.
No United States of Europe
That does not mean we need to turn Europe into the United States of Europe. Political scientist Caramani describes how the old divide between the people and the elite is now re-emerging as a cleavage between populist nationalism and technocratic governance. A European superstate risks widening the gap between these supposedly opposing forces even further.
Europe does not need a president modelled on the United States, acting as the high priest of some European civil religion. It needs institutions that do what matters to citizens: protect their prosperity, security and values.
Making those institutions more effective requires a number of targeted reforms.
A smaller Commission
We should start with the European Commission. Today, every member state appoints one Commissioner. With further enlargement, that system will become increasingly difficult to manage.
Yet the European treaties provide for a Commission with a number of members equal to two thirds of the number of member states, unless the European Council decides otherwise. So there is no requirement for the Commission to have 27 members today. We could perfectly well operate with 18 Commissioners. A smaller Commission could be more effective and decisive.
Large countries such as Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland could each appoint one Commissioner under such a model. Smaller countries could cooperate and rotate: the Benelux countries, the Baltic and Nordic countries, the other Visegrád countries, and so on. At the same time, this would strengthen regional partnerships that already exist today.
We should also make far more consistent use of enhanced cooperation. The treaties allow at least nine member states to move forward together when the Union as a whole cannot. At the end of 2025, this route was used for a €90 billion European loan to Ukraine. The same approach is also being explored for the Capital Markets Union. Today, six member states want to move ahead. Could this be the next step towards a two-speed Europe?
This is not some hypothetical scenario for the future. It already exists. Not every EU country participates in the same forms of monetary, border or defence cooperation. The Benelux has long shown that countries can cooperate more closely without weakening the rest of Europe.
Blocking sanctions
We should also be willing to use new decision-making rules, particularly in defence and foreign policy. Europe cannot afford to speak with different voices when dealing with Washington, Moscow or Beijing.
Today, we have a President of the European Commission, a President of the European Council and a High Representative, while the leaders of the largest member states simultaneously pursue their own roles on the geopolitical stage. The famous question attributed to Henry Kissinger, 'Who do I call if I want to call Europe?', therefore remains relevant.
Foreign policy should be anchored more clearly with the President of the European Commission. And we should finally be willing to seriously examine whether the presidencies of the European Commission and the European Council could be merged.
Even without treaty change, Europe can become more effective. The existing treaties provide ways to take decisions more quickly in certain areas of foreign policy and to use qualified majority voting. We should make use of that room for manoeuvre.
A single government should no longer be able to block sanctions against human rights violators. European positions in international organisations, diplomatic statements and responses to international crises should be approved more quickly.
European sovereignty
This is not an erosion of national sovereignty. It is mature cooperation. By giving up a small part of our national sovereignty, we strengthen European sovereignty on the world stage.
I recently joined Professor Marc De Vos on a podcast, where he went so far as to call the idea that we still possess genuine national sovereignty an illusion. He described European sovereignty as the only form of functional sovereignty through which we can still defend and advance our own interests in the world.
In the coming years, Europe will devote a great deal of energy to the question of which countries are ready to join the Union. Rightly so. But at least as important is the question of whether the Union is ready to receive them.
Enlargement without institutional reform risks making the problems we already face today even worse. And the experience with Orbán teaches us that we should not wait until such a blockage occurs before thinking about solutions. The next leader to dig in their heels could come from any member state. Perhaps sooner than we think.
Anyone who argues in favour of enlargement must therefore also be willing to argue in favour of reform. Not to turn Europe into a superstate, but to ensure that a larger Union remains a workable Union.
New member states deserve a Europe that is capable of acting. So, for that matter, do the current ones.
