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.