Diversity and ephemerality characterize EU politics. This severely affects the possibilities for decision-making in the EU Council.
The political map of Europe is becoming more confusing: Gone are the days when the two formerly large mainstream parties made up the overwhelming majority of all EU governments and consequently determined the balance of power in the EU institutions. Today’s inaugural visit to Brussels by the new Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, marks a turning point. Her right-wing populist party, Fratelli d’Italia, belongs to the Eurosceptic group of European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). When voting in the Council, the difficult partners in Warsaw and Budapest are likely to be among the Italian’s closest allies in the future. At a time of overlapping crises, this probably does not bode well for the decision-making ability of the EU-27. Die Presse explains why.
What is the current balance of power in the Council?
Significantly more unbalanced than in the past years and decades, when European politics was de facto a social-democratic-conservative duopoly with delicate liberal sprinklings. The political fronts currently run between four camps. The conservative throng, united under the umbrella of the European People’s Party (EPP), may have the most heads with a total of nine heads of government (Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden), but they are all small member states .