EUABC A dictionary on words related to the EU

Blocking minority

: (Photo: EU Commission)

A blocking minority is the number of votes needed to block a decision to be made by qualified majority voting. In EU 27 a blocking minority requires 91 votes of the 345 votes in the Council. Qualified majority require 255 of 345 votes.

In the Lisbon Treaty the voting system would change dramatically from 2014, or eventually from 2017. Then, there would be two votes in the Council. In the first vote each member state has one vote while 55% of all member states are needed behind a decision. This means that a blocking minority can be established by a little more than 45% of Member States.

There would also be the more important vote based on population size. Here, a qualified majority requires a majority of states representing 65% of all EU states' citizens. It means that member states with 35% of the citizens will have a blocking minority. It is added that at least four member states are required to block a decision. This new voting system establishes the biggest member states with a much stronger voting powers in the Council. Germany's share of the vote will increase from 8.41% of the votes today to 16.95 % in the Lisbon Treaty.

Links

The Union's decision-making procedure http://europa.eu/scadplus/cons......titution/doublemajority_en.htm