{"id":432,"date":"2026-06-04T07:35:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T07:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.jefmalta.com\/?p=432"},"modified":"2026-06-04T08:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T08:06:07","slug":"jus-cogens-in-international-lawveto-power-of-member-statesjus-cogens-in-international-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.jefmalta.com\/?p=432","title":{"rendered":"Veto Power of Member States"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Michael Gatt<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The European Union (EU) has been built on key General Principles, the Charter of Human Rights, and the Treaties, but most importantly, its Member States. The continent grows more eurosceptic, with many countries electing more far right politicians into the European Parliament. Especially when taking into consideration policies such as the Common Foreign amd Security Policy and Tax issues, the veto power remains central to the idea of maintaining national sovereignty within the supranational framework of the EU. Despite this, the Western EU countries grow worried when addressing the situation of accession of the Western Balkans and Ukraine. On one hand, they wish to uphold their belief of inclusion into the EU and promotion of those who decide to share this idea of a European project, however are fearsome of how this may tip the balance with several of these quickly-accessing countries having large economies and would demand several seats in institutions such as the European Parliament, leading their veto to not only be powerful in the Commission and Council, but infringe on their ideas otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, there has been a reluctance among some EU Member States to agree to further enlargement. One of the reasons for this is EU’s own capacity to absorb new members as well its experience of recent enlargements, alongside concerns about developments within some countries with candidate status and relationships with other countries. Hence the necessity for reform within the institutions has increased, and with this comes the uncomfortable discussion of the veto power. One of the Left groups in Poland has mentioned its desire to abolish the right for individual Member States to veto certain EU policies, claiming how it \u201cgives tools to irresponsible politicians to destroy the union from within\u201d. There are several irresponsibilities that seem to frequent the Member States of the EU, for which the veto power can be stripped, should the possibility arise. Severe and persistent breach of EU values, alongside the failure to uphold the rule of law are two serious issues which should result in the stripping of a veto power. In recent years, several of the larger EU Member States have launched proceedings against countries for breaching one of the values of the EU enshrined in Article 2 TEU – the rule of law. Despite several warnings, States such as Poland and Hungary continue to disregard pleas from the Union and other Member States to respect EU laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The identification of jus cogens norms relies on specific criteria outlined in the ILC\u2019s 2022 Draft Conclusions. To qualify as jus cogens, a norm must first be recognised as part of general international law, typically customary in nature, and must then be accepted and recognised by the international community of States as a whole, as possessing a peremptory character. This dual requirement ensures that jus cogens norms are not widely practiced but also understood to hold superior normative force. The ILC identifies key sources of evidence in this determination, including consistent state practice, widespread opinion juris, authoritative treaty provisions, decisions of international and domestic courts, and statements by international organisations. The ILC has compiled a non-exhaustive list of norms that are widely accepted as jus cogens, including the prohibition against torture, genocide and others, along with the right of peoples to self-determination. The legal consequences of identifying a norm as jus cogens are profound. Treaties that conflict with such norms are considered void under Articles 53 and 64 of the VCLT. States cannot enter reservations to treaties that would contravene peremptory norms, and violations may give rise to aggravated State responsibility. Furthermore, acts by international organisations that conflict with jus cogens are deemed without legal effect. These consequences reflect the hierarchical position of jus cogens within the international legal system and reinforce its role in preserving fundamental values against derogation or circumvention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The EU in itself has the power to suspend certain membership rights of its Member States, according to the procedure listed in Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union, if a serious and persistent breach by a Member State of the values enshrined in Article 2 TEU has been determined. In this time period the breaching Member State must nevertheless continue to maintain its obligations under the Treaties. In such cases, the EU could consider suspending the member state’s veto power to protect the integrity of the Union\u2019s legal order and ensure compliance with its laws. Furthermore, actions by a Member State that threaten the stability and security of the EU may warrant suspension of veto power, as well as non-compliance or obstruction of EU decisions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Gatt The European Union (EU) has been built on key General Principles, the Charter of Human Rights, and the Treaties, but most importantly, its Member States. The continent grows more eurosceptic, with many countries electing more far right politicians into the European Parliament. Especially when taking into consideration policies such as the Common […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.jefmalta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.jefmalta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.jefmalta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.jefmalta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.jefmalta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/test.jefmalta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434,"href":"https:\/\/test.jefmalta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions\/434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.jefmalta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.jefmalta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.jefmalta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.jefmalta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}