The EU foreign policy dossier is a priority for Israel. Making the unanimity lock at the EU Council jump?
Bruno Alomar: Jumping the unanimity lock at the council in foreign policy is first and foremost to end the independence of Member States in foreign policy matters. So, in a way, it would be the end of the sovereignty of a country like France, with the legal and political consequences that this entails. Can we seriously imagine that France could be in the minority – as it just was on Mercosur – in the heart of French sovereignty?
Furthermore, we are touching on the core of European foreign policy issue. There can’t be one, simply because Member States do not agree on anything or simply on a set of values so weak that it cannot withstand any crisis. Whether America, Russia, China, Israel, etc., Europeans only agree on two or three simple ideas: human rights, democracy, rule of law. This will never make a foreign policy. Europe’s diplomatic strength lies in its national diplomatic services, which must sometimes work together. For small states – with all the implications that suggests – access to a diplomatic network like the EEAS has its own importance.
As a reminder, to break the unanimity lock and veto rights, a unanimous vote would first be required, and probably changes in European treaties… Will this ever happen, and with what democratic legitimacy?
This is all quite illusory. Europe spent 20 years (1989 to 2008) working on a treaty (Maastricht 1992, Amsterdam 1997, Nice 2007), after failing with a treaty project in 2005. It was a long and tortuous path, even though the EU had far fewer Member States. No one realistically imagines that negotiations could reopen to change the current treaty. The German chancellor publicly reiterated what others have been thinking for the past few months.
Now, it must be very clear: if Member States, through their constitutional procedures (referendum or parliamentary route), decide to change the treaties, there will be nothing inherently undemocratic about it. But what one Member State with a certain political majority does, another State, with a different political majority at its helm, can undo. That’s called democracy.
Yet, the blockages exist, as demonstrated by the war in Ukraine and other government leaders are not far from following in Viktor Orban’s footsteps. What does this say about the EU’s stance on foreign policy despite the current international chaos?
One very simple thing can be said: the EU is an international organization primarily concerned with economic issues (its five federal competences relate to the market, currency, trade), and it should focus on what it knows. It is a very large economic agency. As long as it pretends to be something else, namely a government, it will fail. This is what the vast majority of Member States think, except for one notable Member State that sees in Europe a transcendence of itself: France.
