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.