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News > Germany

Germany Seeks to Ban National Vetoes in EU

  • German Chancellor explained that modifying the voting procedures would help the expansion of the EU. Aug. 29, 2022.

    German Chancellor explained that modifying the voting procedures would help the expansion of the EU. Aug. 29, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@TLDRNewsEU

Published 29 August 2022
Opinion

German Chancellor called on Monday on the European Union to eradicate the right to veto.

Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor, called on members of the European Union to drop the right to veto in favor of majority voting in several key areas, explaining that this would contribute to the bloc's future expansion.

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The German official emphasized that changing the voting practices might facilitate the bloc's growth, describing how the current schemas could annulate the accession of a candidate country. Scholz proposed the introduction of majority voting on several pressing matters such as sanctions and human rights.

"Where unanimity is required today, the risk of an individual country using its veto and preventing all the others from forging ahead increases with each additional member state," said the top German official.

He continued to say that "the principle of unanimity only works for as long as the pressure to act is low," referring to Russia's special military operation in Ukraine as an example, saying that this has challenged the way the EU applies some policies.

Scholz also suggested the EU submit taxation and foreign policy to majority voting, despite acknowledging "full well that this would also have repercussions for Germany."

He said that German supported the enlargement of the EU; at the time, he considered that western Balkan countries, as well as Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia, would join the bloc creating more differences between the bloc's members.

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