The need for unanimous decisions from members is making the bloc slow to react, the top diplomat has argued
The EU should use qualified majority voting more often for foreign and military policy instead of requiring unanimous decisions, foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said.
The bloc has increasingly passed decisions by approval from 15 of its 27 member states as a way to bypass opposition from some nations on key issues like imports of Russian energy. Some members have argued that the practice is an unacceptable overreach by Brussels into sovereign matters.
“We should dare to also consider the Q-word. Meaning a gradual extension of qualified majority in Common Foreign and Security Policy,” she said in a speech at the European Defense Agency’s annual conference on Wednesday. “Unanimity means we cannot always act at the speed of relevance.”
The former Estonian prime minister also urged the EU to consider establishing “military capabilities” for the bloc, financed by member states.
Just a day earlier, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced that Bratislava will sue the EU over its plan to phase out Russian gas imports by next year, which passed by qualified majority earlier this week.
Both Slovakia and Hungary have argued that using the measure to bypass their veto contravened the bloc’s core treaties and imposed Brussels’ will over fundamental sovereign matters – energy imports.
The measure was “adopted solely out of hatred” toward Russia, Fico said in a press conference on Tuesday.
The EU is in a “deep crisis,” which it can only escape with “new leadership and new ideas,” he said last week, calling for Kallas to be ousted. Major global players have repeatedly spurned her, he said, referring to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has reportedly refused to hold talks with her.
The hawkish EU official has reportedly sparked growing discontent within the bloc over her handling of major international issues and her fixation on Russia.
Neither Moscow nor Washington will engage in dialogue with the “incompetent” diplomat, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
“How can you discuss anything with Kaja Kallas?” he told the press on Sunday. Brussels is packed with “semi-literate, incompetent functionaries,” he said.
