European Parliament calls for change in EU's decision making

The European Parliament called to abandon unanimous decision-making on foreign policy and security issues, and to be satisfied with the majority votes, to speed up agreement on issues such as imposing sanctions on third countries. 

Voting on sanctions requires a unanimous decision by all EU member states. Last week, after several weeks of disputes, the European Union put into effect the sixth package of sanctions against Russia. However, Hungary blocked the approval of the new sanctions, by opposing the Russian oil embargo.

A statement by the European Parliament read that the approval of the sixth package of EU sanctions against Russia further stresses the necessity to review the decision-making process in the Council of the European Union. "We need the political will to take foreign policy decisions through a qualified majority vote." 

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced, earlier, that his country is not bound by the partial embargo imposed by the European Union on oil imports from Russia, saying, "there is no compromise at this moment at all. There is no agreement at all."