Eight European Union countries, including Germany and France, have stepped up efforts to change the bloc’s foreign-policy decision-making mechanism. Bloomberg reports this, citing a document circulated by EU member states, UNN writes.
Details
The initiative is intended to allow the European Union to respond more quickly to international challenges and avoid situations in which one country blocks a decision by the entire bloc. Currently, many EU foreign-policy decisions require unanimous support.
According to Bloomberg, Hungary has used its veto power in recent years to block certain sanctions against Russia and decisions on support for Ukraine.
Countries seek a way to circumvent blockages without changing EU treaties
The authors of the proposal emphasize that the international situation has fundamentally changed due to strategic competition, growing instability, and attempts to undermine the international order. In their view, the EU needs to make faster use of its political, economic, and diplomatic weight.
The eight countries support preserving consensus wherever it can be achieved, but propose mechanisms that would make it possible to avoid blocking decisions. In particular, they refer to "constructive abstention" — a country would be able to express disagreement with a particular decision without vetoing it.
They do not propose changing the EU’s founding treaties for this purpose, since such a step would itself require the unanimous support of all member states. At the same time, Germany is proposing to integrate the EU diplomatic service into the European Commission, which is intended to promote a more centralized foreign policy for the bloc.