Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/266584 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
SWP Comment No. 61/2022
Publisher: 
Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), Berlin
Abstract: 
In the debate on how to strengthen the European Union's (EU) capacity to act, calls for an extension of qualified majority voting (QMV) are growing louder. The Council of the EU is currently discussing using the so-called passerelle clauses in the Treaty on European Union (TEU). With these clauses, more decisions by QMV could be introduced without a major treaty change or a convention. However, abolishing national vetoes in this way would first require unanimity as well as, in some cases, additional national approval procedures. Such unanimity is currently not in sight, as resistance is prevailing in smaller and medium-sized member states, which fear that they could be regularly outvoted. What is needed, therefore, is an institutional reform package in which decisions by QMV are extended with the aim of facilitating further enlargement of the EU and are accompanied by emergency clauses to protect core national interests.
Subjects: 
EU decisions
qualified majority voting (QMV)
passerelle clause
Treaty on European Union (TEU)
EU Commission
Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Research Report

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.