7 countries – members of the European Union believe that there is a need to change the way decisions are made in the organization, abandoning the principle of unanimity, Politico reports.
The foreign ministers of Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, and Spain are calling for a transition to qualified majority voting within the European Union, where decisions would require a majority of votes rather than unanimous agreement.
“The vast majority of decisions in EU foreign policy require unanimity, which in some cases can slow down our ability to act. It is contrary, not thanks to these rules, that we were able to agree on 10 packages of sanctions against Russia in response to its aggressive war against a sovereign state,” the ministers stated in their joint statement.
They also propose a wider use of “constructive abstention,” where a country can oppose a decision without blocking it.
They believe that this way, the European Union will be able to make decisions more effectively in the conditions of the war in Ukraine.
To the countries expressing “concern” about the possible change, they promise to take their opinion into account in order to make “the best decisions for our collective interests.”
