Germany says EU decisions should not be blocked by individual countries

[January 04, 2023]   LISBON (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Wednesday that the European Union could no longer afford to have decisions blocked by individual member states.

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock speaks during a conference in Lisbon, Portugal, January 4, 2023. REUTERS/Pedro Nunes

"Qualified majority voting can lead to fairer...results for all of us," Baerbock told a conference in Portugal's capital Lisbon. "We must be capable of acting efficiently and swiftly."

Baerbock said that EU countries are often not even able to draft a press release "because they cannot agree on the same wording".

(Reporting by Catarina Demony; Editing by Andrei Khalip)

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