The United Nations, once a key player in decolonization and peacekeeping missions, is becoming increasingly ineffective, former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said at the XIII Global Baku Forum in Baku.
According to Report, Prodi attributed the decline in UN effectiveness largely to the strengthened role of the Security Council, where a de facto division of responsibilities has emerged.
"Smaller issues were delegated to the UN, while major ones went to the Security Council," he said.
The former premier emphasized that any international institution loses power when confidence in its ability to influence outcomes erodes. During Security Council meetings, Prodi said, his focus was less on the majority decision than on who would exercise the veto.
He noted that arguments for increasing the influence of the Global South, Latin America, and other regions are valid. "But if the veto power remains, the situation worsens, because it increases the number of actors who can exercise it," he said.
Prodi stressed that the crisis affects all voting institutions, both in supranational bodies like the UN and within governments. "This is why, amid the deep crisis of European institutions, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has proposed moving from unanimity to majority voting-because it is clear that the unanimity requirement effectively paralyzes institutions," he added.