In his highly anticipated state of the union speech, the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, repeated the calls he made last year for an end to unanimity in decisions on foreign affairs matters.
Juncker called for tangible progress on strengthening EU foreign policy, stressing that "we must improve our ability to speak with one voice when it comes to our foreign policy". He proposes "to move to qualified majority voting in specific areas of our external relations".
Stating that “in the concert of nations, Europe's voice must ring clear in order to be heard”, he argued against “sliding back into the incoherence of competing and parallel national diplomacies. Europe diplomacy must be conducted in the singular. Our solidarity must be all-embracing”.
And unlike last year, his words were accompanied by actions. The Commission has published a communication setting out its proposals for qualified majority on matters related to human rights in international bodies, the establishment of sanctions regimes and, finally, in decisions on launching or implementing civil CSDP missions in response to crises abroad. In his speech, Juncker criticised the fact that a single member state can block an EU declaration on human rights at the UN, or European sanctions.
The Commission communication explains that if qualified majority voting were used, the EU could be a stronger, more effective and more credible player on the international scene. It could make its voice heard more easily on the international scene by means of firm and coherent positions, react quickly and effectively to foreign policy challenges and increase its resilience by protecting the member states from the targeted pressure of third countries trying to define the EU.
Article 31, paragraph 3 of the EU Treaty allows the European Council to make a decision to move from unanimity to qualified majority in decision-making in foreign policy and security matters. Juncker made the case for using the passerelle clause of the Treaty of Lisbon, describing it as the “lost treasure of the Lisbon Treaty”.
Several members of the European Parliament met this proposal with great enthusiasm. “We need to become a political player and this idea to move to qualified-majority voting is fully supported”, said Manfred Weber, on behalf of the EPP, while Guy Verhofstadt said on behalf of the ALDE that the proposal was “the most important” of Juncker's speech, calling for the clause to be extended to many other areas.
However, there is by no means unanimity on this proposal among the member states, which often see foreign affairs matters as their sole preserve. The French Minister for European affairs, Nathalie Loiseau, who was in Strasbourg, told EUROPE that she was “not sure that the best way of reaching out to the Europeans was to review the question of unanimity starting with foreign policy”, suggesting that tax convergence would have been a better bet. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant and Sophie Petitjean)