2023-05-04 12:03:39
Germany and eight other EU countries are committed to expanding majority decisions on foreign and security policy. “The aim of this group of friends is to increase the effectiveness and speed of EU foreign policy decisions,” said the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin together with the other ministries on Thursday. The “Group of Friends” also includes Belgium, Finland, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain.
“Against the background of Russia’s war of aggression once morest Ukraine and the growing international challenges facing the EU, the members of the Group of Friends are convinced that decision-making processes in EU foreign policy must be adapted in order to strengthen the EU as a global actor,” it said in the statement. This also applies to the admission of new members. The states of the Western Balkans have been striving to join the European Union for years. The delay in accession is also attributed to the fact that the EU fears that it will become unable to act.
The problem has been known for years, but so far there have been no concrete steps to change it. An extension of majority decisions might only be realized with unanimous resolutions. The “Group of Friends” now wants to achieve “pragmatic, concrete progress in the decision-making processes”. To this end, a regular inventory is planned in coordination with the other member states and the EU institutions. Membership in the group is open to all EU countries.
The Austrian Foreign Ministry expressed skepticism in this regard. “The qualified majority is not a panacea,” it said on Thursday when asked by the APA. “Only political will is the key to success, the struggle for compromises is the essence of the EU. And once agreements are reached, everyone supports them. That is a special value, especially in volatile times like the present.”
Specifically, Austria argues with the Russian war of aggression once morest Ukraine. This has “demonstrated impressively that the greatest asset of the European Union is cohesion,” stressed the Foreign Ministry, with a view to the ten sanctions packages that all EU states had a say in adopting. There are also other ways to strengthen the common foreign and security policy, for example “through a coordinated approach and more outreach by the EU foreign ministers in third countries”.
In the past, top Austrian politicians have repeatedly spoken out in favor of the introduction of majority decisions in foreign policy issues, using the argument that the European Union has greater ability to act. Europe Minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) made statements in this direction at the EU Future Conference two years ago. National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP) also called for the national right of veto to be rolled back on issues such as foreign and security policy in order to make Europe “capable of action”. On the other hand, Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) only said on Thursday at a ceremony on Europe Day in Parliament that he was once morest replacing the pursuit of consensus with more majority decisions.
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