French presidential election EU enlargement warning, Digi Mart USA News: France’s presidential election next year could derail the European Union’s enlargement plans, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković warned on Tuesday at the Euronews enlargement summit. His remarks came as eurosceptic figures from both the far right and far left, including Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, are well placed in polls ahead of the 2027 election.
Nine candidate countries are seeking to join the EU: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine. Accession negotiations are at different stages for each of them.
“Political events can affect enlargement far more strongly than anyone can imagine today,” Plenković said. “Some voters and some parties clearly oppose the process.”
Beyond the rise of euroscepticism in France, the Croatian prime minister expressed concern that the country’s constitutional requirements for approving new EU members could complicate future enlargements. He said the 2005 French referendum on the European Constitution showed that voters can be “manipulated” by “false information” and vote according to “the current situation in France” rather than the question actually put to them.
Under French law, EU enlargement must in principle be approved by referendum. However, an alternative parliamentary procedure allows accession to be ratified by a three-fifths majority of votes cast in both chambers of Parliament.
That route could prove just as difficult given the deep political divisions in France.
Plenković warned that a change in political leadership in France in 2027 could significantly alter the outlook for enlargement, and he questioned the current enlargement timetable. Montenegro hopes to join the Union by 2028, Albania aims to conclude negotiations by the end of 2027, and Moldova targets early 2028.
The Croatian prime minister called this timeline “not wise,” warning that “something unpredictable always happens and things get postponed.”
