European Commission moves to relax Council decision making process

In a briefing paper, the European Commission has made the suggestion that decisions made by the Council of the European Union concerning Common Foreign and Security Policy (including sanctions policy) which currently require unanimous agreement between Member States, should move toward requiring only a qualified majority.

This, it says, would enable the EU to respond more swiftly and with greater decisiveness to emerging crises.

It notes how, for example, ‘In the summer of 2017, a Member State blocked the adoption of targeted EU restrictive measures against Venezuela in response to domestic political developments that the EU had earlier indicated would, if materialised, lead to their adoption. The restrictive measures in question were ultimately adopted only in November 2017 following a further substantial deterioration of the situation on the ground.’

In the sphere of sanctions, it says, ‘As in the case of trade policy where qualified majority voting applies, defining a level of political ambition and identifying an appropriate balance between the economic interests of the Member States is at the core of any sanctions negotiation. The ability of the EU to act decisively in its geopolitical interest, more often than not as part of an international mobilisation against severe violations of international law, is in the common interest of all Member States.’

Member State representatives are invited to ‘endorse the proposals’ at a meeting in the Romanian town of Sibiu in May 2019.

See:
https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/rep/1/2018/EN/COM-2018-647-F1-EN-MAIN-PART-1.PDF