section_path: Powers and functions/Foreign affairs
section_name: Foreign affairs
paragraph_text: Foreign affairs
  
  The legal instruments used by the council for the Common Foreign and Security Policy are different from the legislative acts. Under the CFSP they consist of "common positions", "joint actions", and "common strategies". Common positions relate to defining a European foreign policy towards a particular third-country such as the promotion of human rights and democracy in Myanmar, a region such as the stabilisation efforts in the African Great Lakes, or a certain issue such as support for the International Criminal Court. A common position, once agreed, is binding on all EU states who must follow and defend the policy, which is regularly revised. A joint action refers to a co-ordinated action of the states to deploy resources to achieve an objective, for example for mine clearing or to combat the spread of small arms. Common strategies defined an objective and commits the EUs resources to that task for four years.
  
  The Council must practice unanimity when voting on foreign affairs issues because Common Foreign and Security Policy is a "sensitive" issue (according to EUR-Lex). An exception to this rule exists via Article 31 of the Treaty on European Union, which stipulates circumstances in which qualified majority voting is permissible for the Council in discussing Common Foreign and Security Policy. Article 31 lays out provisions regarding a passerelle clause as well as the possibilities for Member State abstentions. Additionally, Article 31 stipulates derogation for "a decision defining a Union action or position". In late 2023 and early 2024, unanimity voting on foreign affairs issues by the council made headlines due to the resistance of Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary, to passing European Union aid to Ukraine. In this recent example, the Council came to a unified conclusion after discussions with the Hungarian leader; previously at the end of 2023, Orbán had left the room during the Council vote on Ukraine-EU accession talks, this ensuring that the Council passed that issue without veto.