Gunther Krichbaum also urged the German Government to work within the framework of the EU accession process to ensure new opportunities for participation in joint programmes - such as those in the area of common foreign, security and defence policy - were opened up for the candidate countries before their full membership.
 

“Since the process leading to [EU] membership is often long, we call for the creation of a new model that enables candidates to be closely linked to the European Union even before full membership.
The candidate countries must continue to be consistently asked to meet the criteria for democracy, human rights and the rule of law, as well as to step up the fight against corruption. They would also have to immediately implement the EU decisions on the common foreign and security policy”, - the German MP stated.