EU countries to review scrapping foreign policy unanimity rule

The European Union foreign ministers will discuss the proposal to cancel or limit the unanimity rule on foreign policy decision-making at a meeting in Brussels

Politico reports.

Today every country in the European Union has the right to veto such issues as sanctions against russia.

"I'm quite optimistic that it is possible to make progress on the issue of qualified majority voting," German Minister of State for Europe Anna Lührmann said before the meeting.

"We are discussing the areas where this could be possible, particularly in the area of the common foreign and security policy," she stressed.

Lührmann also added that the bloc's joint response to russia was repeatedly "stopped by one member state." "I think that this should not stop us from acting in the future," she said.

Ministers are considering a procedure that would allow countries to move from unanimity to majority voting in the EU Council without the need to change EU treaties.

Hungary regularly blocks EU decisions on sanctions against russia while demanding various concessions or amendments.

As it was reported on Sunday, the European Commission recommended not to allocate 65% of funds (€7.5 billion) to Hungary under three programs from a critical EU fund due to problems with the rule of law.

At the same time, the European Commission laid the groundwork for a possible compromise that would allow Budapest to keep the money.

The next day, the Minister of Justice of Hungary, Judit Varga, submitted a package of draft laws to fulfill the European Commission's requirements to the parliament.

Read Rubryka's timeline of war: current news on Ukraine's defense against russia's aggression.