Eleven European Union member states have called for a review of how the bloc takes foreign-policy decisions and for consideration of limits on individual countries’ veto power. The proposal would mean moving, in some cases, from unanimity to qualified majority voting.
A joint letter to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas was signed by Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain and Sweden. The document was also sent to the members that did not join the initiative.
“The culture of consensus in the Union is an important source of its legitimacy. We therefore continue to strive for consensus whenever possible. But we must also ensure that this culture fosters common action rather than preventing it — otherwise we will have legitimacy but no strength,” the letter says.
The signatories note that EU foreign policy now faces a fundamentally changed environment: strategic competition, growing instability and attempts to undermine the rules-based international order. In their view, the Union will be able to defend its values and interests only if it can quickly mobilise its combined political, economic and diplomatic weight.
Decisions on the Common Foreign and Security Policy generally still require unanimity among all 27 countries. One capital can block a position supported by the other 26. Critics link the problem to years of veto practice under Viktor Orbán’s government in Hungary, including the blocking of a major aid package for Ukraine over a separate dispute.
The eleven countries set out five principles that, they argue, already rest on the existing legal framework:
uphold the principles of sincere cooperation and mutual solidarity;
make greater use of constructive abstention instead of vetoes;
refrain from linking foreign-policy decisions to issues that are substantially unrelated;
explore options under the EU treaties for moving from unanimity to qualified majority voting;
require substantiated vital reasons from those seeking to block such a move.
Qualified majority in the Council of the EU means the support of at least 55% of member states (currently 15 of 27) representing at least 65% of the Union’s population. One instrument under discussion is the so-called passerelle clause in Article 31 of the Treaty on European Union, which would allow the European Council to decide unanimously that the Council should vote by qualified majority on specific foreign-policy matters, without amending the treaties themselves.
The authors of the letter stress that the legal framework for the proposed steps already exists and that the only question is the political will to use it. They are not calling for the complete abolition of the veto on all foreign-policy issues.
Germany has long championed the initiative. France, which previously treated an expansion of qualified majority voting more cautiously, has now joined the appeal. Any actual change to the rules would require the consent of all EU countries, so the prospects for reform remain contested.