EU Leaders Move To Scrap National Vetoes

Since the EU’s early days, the national veto has been a key safeguard. It was designed to protect smaller states from being overruled by larger and more powerful countries. In sensitive areas such as foreign policy, defence and sanctions, unanimity has ensured that no major decision is taken against the clear will of a member state.

The European People’s Party (EPP) congress held this weekend in Zagreb presented a proposal which would mark one of the clearest steps yet towards shifting power away from national governments and concentrating it in Brussels, by limiting the ability of individual states to block EU decisions.

Both Manfred Weber, the EPP’s president, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz argued that unanimity is now a “burden” on the EU’s ability to act abroad, and that groups of EU capitals should be able to move ahead without being held back by others.

The approach promoted in Zagreb breaks with that logic. In the name of speed and efficiency, it would allow the objections of one or more countries to be overridden if they cannot form a large enough blocking minority. In practice, this would favour the EU’s biggest states—above all Germany, the bloc’s most populous country and one of its most influential players. It is not insignificant that Weber, Merz and the President of the European Commission all come from the same country.