Eleven governments recognise the veto problem. Moving towards Federal Europe is the answer.
2 September, Ventotene
UEF-SPINELLI GROUP JOINT PRESS RELEASE
The Union of European Federalists (UEF) and the Spinelli Group welcomes the initiative by eleven Member States to stop national vetoes from paralysing the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy.
Domenec Devesa, President of UEF and MEP Raquel Garcia Hermida van der Walle, Chair of the Spinelli Group declare this initiative confirms what federalists have long argued: unanimity is increasingly incompatible with Europe's capacity to act in a world of geopolitical competition, war and growing insecurity.
Upholding the principles of sincere cooperation and mutual solidarity, relying more on constructive abstention, and fully using passerelle clauses to introduce qualified majority voting should be pursued immediately. Member States should also support the case brought by the Parliament before the Court of Justice for the extension of qualified majority voting in foreign and security policy under Art. 31(2) TEU.
At the same time, these measures can only be a beginning. Recent years have shown the limits of overcoming veto power through Treaty provisions, whose activation itself requires unanimity. The eleven governments' initiative should therefore become the starting point for shaping a vanguard of Member States ready to build a genuinely sovereign and democratic Europe.
UEF and Spinelli Group call on a coalition of the willing – starting with the eleven governments, and with the support of the European Parliament and the Commission – to:
- push for the immediate use of all existing Treaty provisions allowing decisions without unanimity;
- in the meantime, be ready to move forward with the willing, creating a coherent federal vanguard pooling foreign policy, defence, fiscal capacity and other essential instruments of European sovereignty;
- support the Treaty revision procedure long requested by the European Parliament, aiming to abolish national vetoes in foreign policy and other strategic areas such as fiscal policy.
Europe cannot keep advancing at the speed its most reluctant government allows.
The choice is no longer between the current system and improved procedures.
It is between a Union of Nations and a democratic Europe capable of exercising sovereignty on behalf of its own citizens.
PRESS CONTACT
Mathilde Baudouin, Secretary General of the UEF