SotEU: VdL Calls for QMV On Some Foreign Policy Issues

In one of the most important parts of her State of the European Union speech, Ursula von der Leyen called for the use of Qualified Majority Voting on some issues of foreign policy, specifically related to responses on human rights and sanctions.

• "We must call out human rights abuses wherever and whenever they happen. When member states say we are to slow, I say be courageous and do away with unanimity in foreign affairs and move to QMV on human rights and sanctions at least."
• This would mark a major step in terms of the EU acting as a foreign policy actor in itself rather than as a coordinator for member states and an influencer attempting to convince prime ministers and presidents to take unilateral or multilateral action.
• While stating that the EU would only seek to use QMV rather than unanimity in areas relating to human rights abuses and related sanctions, there will be concerns in member state capitals that there will be an increasing 'mission creep' from Brussels, which takes powers related to foreign policy objectives from governments and gives them to the Commission.
• For many countries the above situation would be unacceptable ( for example forcing EU-wide sanctions against a country or gov't even though some member states may be vehemently opposed), and tied in with increased talk about a joint EU army from senior figures such as Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, could spark a backlash from member states that are not in favour of 'ever closer union'.