Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
In some ways, asking whether it’s mandatory is to misunderstand the way the EU works. It wasn’t mandatory, it was entirely outside of the EU’s competence and certain member states were already well advanced with their own plans. But everyone fell into line anyway. There is enormous peer pressure at the European Council (the forum for heads of government). They tend to negotiate into the small hours and achieve a consensus, with any individual isolated prime minister normally falling into line rather than risking the loss of good will that comes from using a veto. The actual use of one is rare. In this case there was no veto as it was a voluntary scheme but nevertheless the pressure to take part will have been significant.
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So who failed here? It sounds like the heads of state are not representing their respective countries interests at the EU Council, and that's a problem...