Filip Singer / EPA
Johann Wadephul, German Foreign Minister, speaks with Chancellor Friedrich Merz
“We should abolish the principle of unanimity in foreign policy. I am in favor of working with a system of qualified majorities.”
The German Foreign Minister today defended that the European Union (EU) abandon the principle of unanimity on foreign and security policy issues to facilitate decision-making before the end of the current legislature, in 2029.
“To be an actor capable of acting at an international level, to truly mature, We should abolish the principle of unanimity in foreign and security policy in the EU before the end of this legislature”, he explained Johann Wadephul, in an interview with newspapers from the Funke publishing group.
I had warned this week that the EU is falling into its “unanimity trap”which continues to block decisions in the European Union.
In this, proposals to change the voting system were highlighted. One of them is to expand the use of qualified majority voting, already used in around 80% of European legislation.
Something supported by the German minister: “I am in favor of working in the European Union with a system of qualified majorities. All the experiences we have had in recent weeks with aid to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia prove this.”
However, this solution faces a paradox: Any change to the rules itself requires unanimity among member states.
These statements come as Hungary, governed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, is currently blocking a 90 billion euro credit from the EU to Ukraine, a country it accuses of preventing the resumption of Russian oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline.
Referring to Hungary’s legislative elections on April 12, in which Orbán could be defeated, Wadephul said: “Hungarians will decide democratically what leadership they want. And we We must collaborate, and we will collaborate, with any Hungarian Government”.
