TEPSA has coordinated a Study requested by the European Parliament Research Service (EPRS), which has ben published as an Annex to an EPRS study. It is authored by Daniel Fiott, Head of the Defence and Statecraft Programme at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) of the Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium; and Giulia Tercovich, Assistant Director of the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) of the Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. The Study is entitled “Qualified majority voting in common foreign and security policy – A cost of non-Europe report”.
The following study deals with qualified majority voting (QMV) and the common foreign and security policy (CFSP) of the European Union (EU). As the EU develops into a geopolitical actor, it is necessary to analyse its existing and future foreign policy decision-making procedures. However, a series of high-profile instances have called into question the EU’s ability to act in a rapid and effective manner, especially as the need for unanimity has in practice obstructed EU action on human rights, restrictive measures and common security and defence policy (CSDP) missions and operations. This study shows how unanimity affects the operation of CFSP and how divergences among EU Member States can be managed, before considering what costs and benefits could result from applying QMV in the areas of human rights, restrictive measures and civilian missions under the CSDP. To this end, it employs four case studies focusing on human rights in Hong Kong, restrictive measures on Belarus, the EULEX Mission in Kosovo and restrictive measures on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.