Eleven EU states ask Kallas to curb foreign-policy vetoes

Eleven European Union governments have written to foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas asking her to stop national vetoes from freezing the bloc's external action. The signatories are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain and Sweden. Their letter, reported by Euronews and Politico on 1 September, sets out five principles rather than a draft treaty.

The first is sincere cooperation and mutual solidarity, language already in the treaties. The second is more use of constructive abstention, which lets a state step aside without blocking the others. The third is a ban on linking a foreign-policy vote to an unrelated national demand. The fourth asks Kallas to study existing treaty tools that allow a shift from unanimity to qualified majority voting on chosen files. The fifth says a government that still wants to block such a shift should give "substantiated vital reasons."

"The culture of consensus in the Union is an important source of its legitimacy," the ministers wrote. "We must also ensure that this culture of consensus fosters common action rather than preventing it, otherwise we will have legitimacy but no strength." They added that the legal frame for the five principles already exists and that the task is to use it.

Unanimity on common foreign and security policy has been the rule since the policy was created. It became a practical problem during Viktor Orbán's last years in Budapest, when Hungary delayed or blocked Ukraine-related measures and tied votes to disputes such as the Druzhba oil pipeline. Orbán left office after an election defeat in April. The 11 capitals are trying to lock in a post-Orbán habit before the next holdout appears.

Germany has argued for qualified majority voting on foreign policy for years. France long resisted a wholesale switch. The letter is written so Paris can sign it without endorsing a full move to majority rule. The passerelle clause in Article 31 of the EU treaty would let leaders extend qualified majority voting to extra CFSP items without opening a new treaty. Activating that clause itself requires unanimity. That circular requirement is why similar campaigns have stalled.

The group does not include Italy, Poland, Hungary, Greece or the Baltic states. Some of those governments guard the veto because they sit on the Union's external edge or because they use it as leverage. Without them, the letter is a political signal to Kallas and to the European Council, not a voting majority of 27.

Kallas and EU foreign ministers had already met in County Wicklow, south of Dublin, to talk about making external policy less clumsy. France and Germany used that week to push faster coordination. The 11-state letter is the written follow-up. It will not end vetoes this autumn. It does make it harder for the next single capital to treat a Ukraine vote, a sanctions roll-over or a statement on the Iran war as a bargaining chip for a domestic file. That is the limited, concrete change the signatories can deliver without waiting for a new treaty.