The abolition of unanimity will silence the voice of smaller states

Intervention by AKEL MEP Giorgos Georgiou:

21 November 2023, EP plenary session in Strasbourg

The objective of the proposals to abolish unanimity in decision-making is to silence the voice of smaller states in the EU and to strengthen the hegemonic role of the more powerful ones, AKEL MEP Giorgos Georgiou underlined on Tuesday during his intervention in the debate in the European Parliament (EP) on the revision of the EU Treaties.

During the debate at the EP plenary session in Strasbourg on Tuesday afternoon on the European Parliament’s proposals to amend the Treaties, AKEL MEP Georgiou, a member of the Left Group in the EP, pointed out in his intervention that the supporters of the proposal “hypocritically” invoke the fear of the far right to change the Treaties and abolish unanimity in decision-making.

The AKEL MEP wondered if they saw the elephant in the room, which he said was feeding on the imposition of austerity policies, the authoritarianism in decision-making, climate change, tax evasion, the arbitrary nature of the so-called free market, on “an inhumane immigration policy”, violence against women and on the failure to defend peace.

“Let’s be honest,” the AKEL MEP pointed out, noting that the goal of the proposal’s supporters is not to counter the far right, “in any case you need it, and you frequently instrumentalize it,” he said, but rather the goal is to silence the voice of smaller states, “to make them pariahs, and to strengthen the hegemonic role of the most powerful EU states.”

“There goes your democracy,” he said, calling on the rapporteurs to change policies, including the Treaties too, but in the opposite direction. “Rather, you neither want to, nor can you,” G. Georgiou concluded.

The matter will be put to a vote on Wednesday.