The EU’s European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wants the bloc to drop the requirement of having to gain the approval of all 27 of its members on foreign policy decisions.
“In foreign affairs, we really have to move to qualified majority voting,” von der Leyen told reporters on Monday. She made the comments when answering a question about whether or not the EU will change its decision-making process on admitting new members.
The European Commission recently declared its support for Ukraine and Moldova to join the bloc, but it still needs approval from all 27 EU members, which von der Leyen expects the countries to get. If approved, Ukraine and Moldova would need to meet a number of conditions before starting formal membership talks, a process that could take years.
But there are other foreign policy decisions that the EU has had trouble agreeing on, including sanctions on Russia. The bloc struggled to prohibit the import of Russian oil due to objections from Hungary, which was able to get an exemption from the ban that was eventually passed. Hungary has also blocked the EU from sanctioning Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Von der Leyen said she didn’t think the current system of requiring unanimity to reach foreign affairs decisions was “sustainable” but recognized that changing the policy would take time.
Several EU member states are already pushing to increase sanctions on Russia and Belarus and to boost military aid for Kyiv. But according to Reuters, other states, including Germany, are more hesitant to add new sanctions and want to focus on enforcing existing ones.
Who cares about the 27? Fuhrer Ursula makes all the decisions anyway.
The EU sure is a fractious lot. The benefit of the current arrangement is that it makes it difficult to implement stupid ideas. Well it also makes it difficult to implement good ideas but there seems to be a dearth of them today anyway.
I don’t know European politics. But I get the sense there is already growing resentment of EU attempts to control member states. Brexit is an obvious example. The French Parliamentary elections this week may be another. That suggests that Ursula von der Leyen needs to learn to read the room before she opens her mouth.
It is probably about the admission of Ukraine to the EU. Under current rules that admission must be unanimously approved.
Andrew Napolitano interviews (ret.) Col. Douglas Macgregor.
https://www.rt.com/news/557512-brussels-nato-protest-economy/
Protesters rally against NATO.
I don’t know how the Swiss feel about NATO, though officially their neutral.
How does the Swiss’ penchant for independence square with hosting Klaus Schwab’s WEF office in Celigny? One world government and all that rot?
fuck the eU
Majority rule means the less powerful will more frequently get shafted.
The EU is evolving, the war in Ukraine has finally turned it into an organisation that’s able to act with authority.