Close Menu
    'Change EU rules to stop Hungary's abuse of veto' – Lithuanian FM
    Europe

    ‘Change EU rules to stop Hungary’s abuse of veto’ – Lithuanian FM

    Share.
    View 17 Comments

    17 Comments

    1. ZestycloseGur8108 on

      Current rules are a disaster for the future of EU. My own country, Denmark, has voted to block expansion talks with new member states because of the fear of a “new Hungary”. Now we’ere also getting double team’et by both Russia and USA trying to promote saboteurs of the EU project in various EU countries. Without a mechanism to kick anti-democratic countries out, EU’s future is in serious trouble.

    3. NotBorn2Fade on

      Idk, maybe controversial opinion, but if Hungary hates the EU so much and does everything in its power to undermine any meaningful changes, EU should just remove it from the union and rescind all the benefits that go with the membership. Like… I get it that voices of the opposition are also important and whatever, but this is more like a deliberate sabotage and enough is enough.

    6. xwolf360 on

      So democracy only works as long as you vote how we tell you to vote?? This is why the eu is a fraud. They pretend to be progressive but they are just anti free speech and anti democratic tirany.

    10. LookThisOneGuy on

      Then why isn’t Lithuania one of the countries that joined the initiative to stop the abuse of the veto? This isn’t a new issue, we have been trying for years now.

      Here are the countries that aren’t all talk about this but actually want to enact change to stop countries like Hungary vetoing foreign policy decisions: [Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain](https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/newsroom/news/2595304-2595304).

    11. robeewankenobee on

      The Veto rule is simply not working … not only in this particular setup but also in the UN Security Council for the P5 (obviously and proven with the Russian aggression against Ukraine)

      There should be a democratic (qualified) majority rule irelevant of the Power of certain states in the said group (like the EU) … if there’s a tie, they should debate/convince and conclude for the next vote, like leaders of all states usually do.

      Veto is for Autocratic-ruled systems, like US 🙂

    12. Cathal1954 on

      They could drastically reduce the circumstances in which a veto can be used and have more decisions made under qualified majority. Any continent that can create the d’Hondt method surely has the with to negate the possibility of a single member derailing decision making.

      PS. F**k Orban.

    14. dat_9600gt_user on

      **With Budapest having blocked a €90 billion lifeline loan for Ukraine and a twentieth sanctions package against Russia, Kęstutis Budrys says action needs to be taken to stop Hungary abusing its veto to block key EU policies.**

      Lithuania is calling for an overhaul of the European Union’s voting system following Hungary’s announcement it is blocking two key decisions in relation to Ukraine because of problems with Budapest’s access to cheap Russian oil through the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline.[](https://castbox.fm/channel/id6170323?country=gb)

      Ahead of Monday’s foreign affairs meeting in Brussels, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó posted on X: “At tomorrow’s Foreign Affairs Council, the EU aims to adopt the twentieth sanctions package. Hungary will block it.

      “Until Ukraine resumes oil transit to Hungary and Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline, we will not allow decisions important to Kyiv to move forward”, Szijjártó said.

      This means Budapest is blocking a €90 billion EU loan to Kyiv that was agreed and endorsed by all 27 member states before Christmas.

      Ukraine is due to run out of money by early April and needs the capital to run the country as well as support the military as it enters the grim milestone of five years of war.

      “We were expecting that everything was already prepared for the fourth anniversary and we will be ready to deliver new sanctions package, and also the €90 billion loan to Ukraine”, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys told Euronews’ Europe Today show.

      Given that one of the policies’ main goals was to show that “Europe is solid, Europe is resolved and we can deliver”, Hungary’s obstruction “is really frustrating”, Budrys said.

      Hungary is known as a serial disrupter in the EU, frequently threatening to block crucial polices – often relating to Ukraine’s accession to the EU, or the EU’s material support for Kyiv while it defends itself against Russia.

      # No more unanimity?

      EU officials and member states have long questioned whether unanimous voting for matters of foreign policy is practical anymore.

      It happens “so many times, this exploitation of the principle of unanimity”, said Budrys. “We have to review the very decision-making process, or we have to review, the powers of one of the member states. We have to go into the discussion about the decision-making and common foreign security policy and whether we should move to QMV” (qualified majority vote).

      A “qualified majority” is a vote at the Council of the EU that meets two criteria: 15 out of 27 members voting together who collectively represent 65 percent of the EU’s population. This standard removes power from member states who use their veto to hold up legislation for their own purposes.

      But Budrys floated another idea: that Hungary’s voting rights could be removed in certain areas given its constant flouting of norms and rules critical for the functioning of the union.

      “Another thing is the principles that we have in Article 7, what allows us to reduce the voting rights of one of them member if we cannot proceed further,” said Budrys.

      The Article 7 process is designed to hold any member state deemed in breach of the EU’s core values to account. It can be triggered by one-third of member states, the European Commission and the European Parliament.

      But once triggered, the actual process of removing a state’s voting rights is far more difficult to achieve – and it has failed in the past in relation to Hungary’s previous alleged transgressions.

      Nonetheless, Budrys warned continuing down the current path will spell the “end for the EU as a geopolitical actor in the future”.

      “This is what is at stake.”

    15. Any-Inspection8591 on

      You can’t. Would take an unanimous vote. You think Hungary and Slovakia would permit that? Can’t kick them out either.