The EU last week had dropped the head of the Russian Orthodox church, Patriarch Kirill, from its sixth sanctions package after Hungary held up the deal, saying religious leaders shouldn’t be penalised.
Hungary had previously received broad exemption from implementing the oil embargo also included in the package for talks to proceed. Prime minister Viktor Orban is considered one of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s allies in Europe.
“Unanimity means that one [country] can hold the rest of the European Union hostage,” said Christophe Hansen (CSV/EPP), one of Luxembourg’s six MEPs, during a discussion on RTL radio over the weekend. “There must be a solution.”
Prime minister Xavier Bettel (DP) last week had said it would be “unacceptable” for Orban to block the sanctions package.
“Unanimity must go,” said Marc Angel (LSAP/S&D). “The EU is weaker when it isn’t speaking with one voice,” he said. “We are blocking each other.”
The European Parliament in May had backed for the EU’s founding treaties to be reviewed in order to implement recommendations developed during the so-called Conference on the Future of Europe, a two-year process that involved citizens from across the EU giving feedback and providing ideas on what needs to change.
“This is one of the main treaty changes demanded by 800 citizens during the Conference on the Future of Europe,” Angel said.
Tilly Metz (déi Gréng/Greens-EFA) said that EU members have been “nibbling” away at the unanimity process for some time, adding that the sanctions package ultimately went through, even though were some concessions.
“Absolutely,” she said when asked if the unanimity principle should be abolished.
EU and Luxembourg veteran politician Jean-Claude Juncker (CSV) on 30 May also called for an end to unanimity. “It’s a scandal that we are unable to express a common view on human rights in China,” said the former Luxembourg prime minister and European Commission president.
Hungary last year several times had blocked the EU from condemning China’s clampdown in Hong Kong.
Luxembourg is represented with six MEPs in the European Parliament. Two in the S&D group, one in the EPP group, one in the Greens/EFA group and two in the Renew Europe group, which wasn’t represented in the discussion on RTL on 4 June.