Steven N.The European Union needs to break with its policy of unanimous decision-making in the areas of foreign and security policy, said Manfred Weber in an interview published in the Sunday edition of the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel.
The President of the European People’s Party (EPP) believes that recent vetoes by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán justify the need to make the policy change.
I’m fed up with the fact that we depend on Viktor Orbán on foreign policy issues or on the EU oil embargo.
-said the Christian Social Union (CSU) politician.
This isn’t the first time that Weber has expressed his frustration with Hungary’s premier and the EU’s decision-making process. In late May, the EPP head said nearly the same thing to Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, following the Hungarian government’s unwillingness to support a sixth EU sanctions package against Russia. [Magyar Hang]
The case for changing the rules in the EU about unanimous agreement has been on the table for years.
But as usual, nothing, but nothing has been done about it.
It is eminently clear that unanimous agreement is unworkable and counterproductive, no matter what the original reason was for introducing it as part of the EU system in the first place.
With unanimous agreement the EU is completely hamstrung and cannot even introduce new laws, since those require agreement as well!
Totally insane and non democratic. A catch-22 situation, created by the EU itself.
Majority rules is the essence of democracy, not unanimous rule.
The problem is that now it takes unanimous agreement to end unanimous agreement.
Somehow they never considered this possibility when they decided to enlarge the EU…
Sadly, both you and Steven are correct about the EU. Professor Balogh used to talk about peacock dances by Orbán. I suspect the same could be said about the EU.