[Stakeholder] Survey: Europeans want values-based foreign policy and ditch veto

These figures go further than what we have seen in other surveys since the outbreak of the Ukraine war. The war has undoubtedly led to a refocusing of minds. What does the European Union stand for and what does it mean for the future of European citizens?

For many years, European foreign affairs were the domain of diplomats and a couple of experts. The EU played second fiddle on the world stage behind some of its bigger member states, in particular those who are permanent members of the UN Security Council, as well as Germany and, occasionally, Italy and Spain.

Today, the European Union is perceived more and more as an international player in its own right. In trade negotiations, this has been the case for a long time.

But the world has now become increasingly aware of the effect that EU decisions have on international economic developments, for example, its anti-trust regulations, which affect companies globally, or ts environmental regulations which, in effect, are already setting new global standards because of the mere size of the European market.

This increased role of the EU on the world stage is perhaps more by accident than by design, although the 2011 establishment of the European External Action Service (EEAS), in effect the EU’s Foreign Office, led by a high representative for foreign affairs and security policy (in other words, an EU foreign minister) is beginning to make a real difference. The current high representative is Josep Borrell, who previously was president of the European Parliament and Spanish foreign minister and is therefore able to speak with some authority.

Two main developments can be noted: firstly, the world outside Europe is taking the EU more seriously. Secondly, European citizens have begun to take an interest.

30 interventions in 21 years

Since 2002, which marked the end of the war in the former Yugoslavia, the EU has intervened abroad 30 times in Europe, Asia and Africa.

And in recent years, the EU has taken a global role where it addresses both climate change and sustainability. It also played a major leadership role during the Covid pandemic. However both topics were more or less forced upon the European decision-makers.

The real change has come recently, with the Russian assault on Ukraine as well as the growing awareness of the role that China is carving out for itself on the world stage, and the interference of both China and Russia in democratic processes in our own countries. Leaning back is no longer an option. The results of our survey confirm this.

In 2019, before the Ukraine war, climate change was the Europeans’ top priority. This priority, at the time, was followed by poverty, terrorism, and unemployment.

Now, four years later, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than three-quarters of Europeans want a stronger joint European foreign policy. At the national level, this figure is lowest in France, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Austria, although still above 75%. In Belgium, Spain and Finland, on the other hand it goes even above 89 percent, 91 percent and 95 percent. There is similar support for stronger defence and security cooperation.

Indeed, security is the single most important priority of the EU’s foreign policy. It is closely followed by the defence of human rights and democracy. The same result can be seen in all ten countries surveyed.

This shift is significant. After all, in the past, supporting the EU was often sold to reluctant European citizens as being in their natural self-interest.

One would then have expected economic growth and trade to top the list. But these are now a distant third and seventh on the list of our respondents’ priorities. The debate about the systemic rivalry between Europe and China has also played its part. “Countering the influence of China” is fourth on the list of foreign policy priorities.

There is thus a clear need for a more effective and coherent joint foreign policy.

A majority in all 10 countries surveyed believes that the veto-system, whereby a single member state can block foreign policy decisions, stands in the way of that.

In the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Finland and Sweden more than 75 percent of respondents would like to ditch the veto. They thus support an initiative of a group of nine European Union countries who have joined forces to reform the voting rules that currently apply to the bloc’s foreign and security policy decisions, which are governed by unanimity and often fall victim to the veto power of one single member state.

The newly-formed “Group of Friends on Qualified Majority Voting” consists of Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain, and is open to other countries who wish to join.

Hungary, in particular, has been heavily criticised for generously using its individual power to block key agreements, such as an EU-wide ban on Russian oil imports, an €18bn financial aid package for Kyiv and a deal to impose a 15 percent minimum corporate tax.

The vetoes were eventually lifted, but only after the Orban-government’s unilateral demands were met in full. Under such circumstances, the veto mechanism is obviously prone to be turned into a tool for political blackmailing. Another headline-making case occurred in September 2020, when Cyprus single-handedly blocked EU sanctions on Belarus because of an unrelated dispute with Turkey.

This shift in public opinion on the veto power is significant, too.

Foreign affairs are justifiably seen as an important part of national identity. How countries present themselves on the world stage reflects on what they stand for, in other words on ‘who they are’. The national veto on European foreign affairs reflected this desire to safeguard these national identities of all 27 member states.

Now, however European citizens apparently also desire a joint European identity on the global stage, and this should be done in an effective manner without one single member state being able to stop the entire EU from moving forward.

It reveals another noteworthy aspect that may be deemed even more significant: namely that Europeans believe that there is such a thing as a nascent European identity, probably next to or on top of national and regional identities. From there, it is not a huge step to recognising that there actually is a European “polity” — a political sphere that goes beyond the national boundaries of the EU member states. Although there is still a considerable distance to cover before reaching that point, it is no longer as unimaginable as it has been widely believed for many years.

The survey presented in this article was carried out by Meute in Maastricht from April 14-17, 2023. The countries surveyed were the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Finland, and Sweden. The survey is part of FNF-Brussels’ “Europe 2050” project.