11 EU States Push to End Foreign Policy Vetoes
Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain and Sweden have called for reforms to EU foreign policy decision-making, including exploring a shift from unanimity to qualified majority voting.
Eleven EU nations are advocating for an end to the bloc's "obstructive" foreign policy vetoes, proposing a shift from unanimity to qualified majority voting. The signatories—Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, and Sweden—addressed EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas with a letter, urging the EU to find a way to boost decision-making speed and effectiveness.
Recent foreign policy decisions, such as those under threat from growing competition and instability, have seen such vetoes block progress. The eleven countries propose five principles: fostering sincere cooperation and mutual solidarity, using constructive abstentions over vetoes, avoiding unrelated policy linkages, exploring unanimity-to-qualified majority voting within EU treaties, and requiring substantial vital reasons to block such change.
The legal framework already exists, but the proposal faces an obstacle: it requires unanimity to succeed, meaning obstructive countries could potentially block it themselves. Germany and France are discussing ways to bolster Kallas' role, with von der Leyen overseeing her.
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