Voting in the Council
- (Photo: Notat)
The decision-making rules basically demand an absolute majority of Member States (23 of 25 countries), but this is seldom used.
Much more common is unanimity and qualified majority voting.
A majority of member states, also representing 62% of the EU population where the votes of the member states' populations are weighted as follows.
Germany | 29 |
United Kingdom | 29 |
France | 29 |
Italy | 29 |
Spain | 27 |
Poland | 27 |
Netherlands | 13 |
Greece | 12 |
Czech Republic | 12 |
Belgium | 12 |
Hungary | 12 |
Portugal | 12 |
Sweden | 10 |
Austria | 10 |
Slovakia | 7 |
Denmark | 7 |
Finland | 7 |
Ireland |
7 |
Lithuania | 7 |
Latvia | 4 |
Slovenia | 4 |
Estonia | 4 |
Cyprus | 4 |
Luxembourg | 4 |
Malta | 3 |
TOTAL | 321 |
The future
The EU Constitution proposes introducing a more simple voting system in 2009: a double majority will consist of 55 % of the member states, representing at least 65% of the EU's population.