Voting in the Council
- (Photo: Notat)
The decision-making rules basically demand an absolute majority of Member States (14 of 27 countries), but this is seldom used.
Much more common is unanimity and qualified majority voting. A member state can ask to control a decision when the qualified majority also represents member states with 62 % of the whole EU population.
| Germany | 29 |
| United Kingdom | 29 |
| France | 29 |
| Italy | 29 |
| Spain | 27 |
| Poland | 27 |
| Romania | 14 |
| Netherlands | 13 |
| Greece | 12 |
| Czech Republic | 12 |
| Belgium | 12 |
| Hungary | 12 |
| Portugal | 12 |
| Sweden | 10 |
| Austria | 10 |
| Bulgaria | 10 |
| Slovakia | 7 |
| Denmark | 7 |
| Finland | 7 |
|
Ireland |
7 |
| Lithuania | 7 |
| Latvia | 4 |
| Slovenia | 4 |
| Estonia | 4 |
| Cyprus | 4 |
| Luxembourg | 4 |
| Malta | 3 |
| TOTAL | 345 |
Future
The Lisbon Treaty proposes introducing a new voting system in 2009: a double majority will normally consist of 55 % of the member states, representing at least 65% of the EU's population or 72 % of the states and still 65 % of the population if an initiative from the Commission is not required.
