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President of the European Commission seized the opportunity to revive her battle. Less than 24 hours after Hungary voted to oust Viktor Orban – its anti-European leader of 16 years – Ursula von der Leyen once again pleaded for the European Union to have more power over national governments, in order to be able to impose certain decisions regarding foreign policy. That is, to end the veto right, a historical tool of the EU.

Because under Viktor Orban, a close ally of US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hungary has often blocked foreign policy decisions. Each government can currently veto decisions concerning foreign affairs, enlargement, the EU budget, or even state sovereignty, and thus block the 26 other members on projects that do not serve its national interests. This complicates, in particular, the adoption of sanctions against Russia and Israel, or additional budgets to support Ukraine.

Ursula von der Leyen’s Great Battle

In recent years, Ursula von der Leyen has become the figurehead of a controversial struggle within the EU, calling for a major change: getting rid of the veto right in favor of qualified majority voting. Since taking over as head of the Commission in 2019, the German leader has urged European nations: “Be brave and finally switch to qualified majority voting.” Last September, in her major speech on the State of the European Union, she reignited the debate once more. “It’s time to free ourselves from the shackles of unanimity,” she called out, garnering strong applause from supporters who are still struggling to be heard.

“Moving to qualified majority voting in foreign policy is an important way to avoid systemic blockages, as we have seen in the past,” she pleaded again on Monday, April 13. And she urged governments to “seize the opportunity now,” that is, the end of Viktor Orban’s reign, the biggest user of the veto right blocking Europe so far.

Divisions

For some small states, the veto is a crucial tool to make themselves heard. On the other hand, powerful European nations with less to lose, such as Germany or France, have already expressed support for qualified majority voting. Emmanuel Macron, for example, has called several times to generalize the tool. “We have let the idea that Europe had become a powerless bureaucracy take hold,” he declared just a few months after his first election in 2017, and has since maintained that qualified majority voting is the solution to these blockages.

In 2023, Berlin even launched a “Group of Friends of Qualified Majority Voting in Foreign Policy and Common Security”. But the momentum quickly petered out: this initiative, which brought together Belgium, Finland, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Spain, has since led to nothing. In reality, even among the supporters, the vision sometimes differs, with some wishing to see majority voting generalized, while others only want it applied to certain subjects like taxation, but not foreign policy.

So today, it is difficult to know if there is a real momentum for the end of the veto behind Ursula von der Leyen. And even with strong support, there is a problem: to switch from unanimity to qualified majority voting, she will first need to… gain unanimity.