How come Germany and Italy get to block the move when you have FIVE other countries pushing for it?
Do they have veto power or some shit?
There are two chambers that can veto. The parliament seats are weighted by population, so Germany has the most votes, while e.g. France and Spain also get many, but less than Germany. However, there are not countries, but parties voting there. You will rarely find German leftists agree with German right-wingers, but rather leftists from other countries.
In the council on the other hand, every member state has a single vote. Both chambers can veto legislation. That has come from the commisssion, which is kind of the EU government and can also block legislation. There are different kinds of majorities required for different kinds of stuff - everything from simple to unanimous. So depending on the vote, a single country could block it, although I don’t know if that is what happened here. Could be, I think foreign policy is one of the more touchy topics.
Appreciate the explanation
I thought it was like the UN, where the US, UK, France, Russia and China had veto powers and could essentially single-handedly block any move repeatedly regardless of what any other country (asides from these) vied for.
It seems the kind of majorities the EU requires for legislation to pass makes it so that one naturally loses any real hope for change for the EU, since someone or the other will realistically always be blocking legislation.
Germany has a bad history with fascism, and is no different today, and it being more populous doesn’t help.
There is surprisingly much happening in the EU, because everyone is trading favours. You agree with this, we agree with that. Everyone knows that legislation would come to a complete halt otherwise, and all have something to gain from coming through and approving stuff, that’s why it mostly works out
It seems to be mostly focused on detaching themselves from the us and dealing w other enemies like Russia / china , not so much ending funding for genocide (CMIIW)
