Germany’s foreign minister said on Monday the European Union should abolish the right of individual member states to veto foreign policy measures as the 27-nation bloc could not allow itself to be “held hostage”.
His comments, which came days after a more junior official criticised Hungary by name, reflect growing frustration in Berlin at the way in which EU member countries can prevent it from acting in matters on which almost all members agree.
”We can’t let ourselves be held hostage by the people who hobble European foreign policy with their vetoes,” Heiko Maas told a conference of Germany’s ambassadors in Berlin. […]
Hungary blocked an EU statement in April criticising China’s new security law in Hong Kong, undermining EU efforts to confront Beijing’s restrictions of freedoms in the former British colony. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Monday that the European left, led by the German left, was attacking Hungary because of ”its refusal to sign a politically inconsequential and frivolous joint declaration on Hong Kong”.
These declarations make the EU look like a ”pathetic paper tiger,” Orban wrote on his official website. Läs artikel