Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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125. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his views on the call by the European Commission President in his state of the Union address to the European Parliament to move to qualified majority voting in specific areas of the EU's external relations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37793/18]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In his “State of the Union” address to the European Parliament on 12 September 2018, the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, gave a wide-ranging speech in which he touched on numerous issues. One of these, following on from his address of 2017, was a request to Member States to examine if there are foreign policy decisions in certain areas that could be taken by qualified majority voting.

Decisions on the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy are taken by the Council acting unanimously. As President Juncker has pointed out, there is provision in the Lisbon Treaty for decisions to be taken by qualified majority voting, provided that all Member States agree to this. Ireland would study any such proposals, if they were to emerge, very closely to ensure that the careful balance enshrined in the Treaty on European Union is fully respected.