Potential Treaty Change To End Unanimity Vote Does Not Make EUCO Conclusions

There has been consistent speculation in recent weeks and months that EU leaders could seek to alter the bloc's founding treaties (the documents that make up the EU's fundamental laws and principles) to remove unanimity voting on areas such as foreign policy. This was sparked by the consistent refusal of Hungary to allow the EU to impose strict sanctions on Russian oil imports, resulting in some member state leaders including Germany's Olaf Scholz and France's Emmanuel Macron musing that unanimity could be altered or ended.

• However, the Council's comments on the Conference on the Future of Europe failed to include any mention of the European Parliament's formal request for a treaty change under Article 48 of the Treaty on the European Union, seemingly pushing any prospect of ending unanimity voting into the long grass.
• Camino Mortera at the Centre for European Reform think tank tweets: "understand that leaders were goint to at least mention the Parliament's demand to open the treaties, but Macron's "bad" results last Sunday got in the way."
• Any treaty change would mark a seismic shift in EU politics and power. A number of smaller countries are believe to be wary of ending the veto and being outvoted by larger nations.