The European Council conclusions of 16 October 2026 only 'take note' of the Commission's communication 'Preparing for a wider Union', which holds the safeguards plan for new members, and ask the Council to analyse it, which the rule counts as NO; the Council's own page was closed to the browser, so the text was read in a reprint and POLITICO Europe confirms that very little was decided at the summit.
History. No count from the cases: none of them asked whether EU leaders back new safeguards for members. This question comes from the Commission's motive. The checker compares Hunch with the page base of 1 of 4.
Hunch. The Guardian reports that EU leaders will only discuss the plan next week and face hard choices, and EU countries still have to agree to it.
The trial period market resolves on the European Council conclusions of 15 to 16 October 2026: YES if they back or welcome the Commission's plan for a probation period for new members, NO if the plan is missing or the leaders only take note of it. The Guardian and BBC News are the backup.
We looked for cases where one EU country stopped blocking a candidate's entry talks, and every member country then had to agree to open new parts of those talks. We found four since 2009: Croatia once, Turkey twice and Serbia once. Each time we counted the days from the blocking country's consent to the opening.