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Voting in the Council, big change from November 2014

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Voting in the Council, big change from November 2014

The decision-making rules basically demand an absolute majority of member states (15 of 28 countries), but this method is seldom used.

Much more common is qualified majority voting and some times unanimity. Qualified majority is 260 of 352 possible votes in the Council until 1 Novem,ber 2014. Then, the system is changed into "double majority".

First, there must be a majority of 55% of the member states. Then, they must also represent 65% of the total EU population. If a proposal does not origin in the Commission there must be 74% of the member states behind - super qualified majority.

Before 2009 a member state could ask to control if a decision by qualified majority also represented member states with 62 % of the whole EU population. This possibility has never been used because qualified majority required 74% of the weighted votes in the Council of Ministers.

The table shows the number of votes for each member state until 1 November 2014.

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
Croatia	7
Finland	7
Ireland	7
Lithuania	7
Latvia	4
Slovenia	4
Estonia	4
Cyprus	4
Luxembourg	4
Malta	3
TOTAL	352

Qualified majority is 260

For 2008 the Council of Ministers published a list with 147 votes from the total number of 536 legal acts adopted by the Council. Of the 147 votes 128 were unanimous. There were only 8 votes against a law, two from Luxembourg and one from each of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Netherlands and Portugal. There were 32 abstentions of a possible number of 14,472 votes. (536 x 27 member states). This is 0,0006 % only.

Population, votes in The Council and members of the European Parliament, euABC.com:

Country	Population (mio.)	Population (% of EU)	Votes in The Council	Votes in The Council (%)	Number of MEP’s	As % of all MEP’s
Germany	80,523	15,93	29	8,24	96	12,78
France	65,633	12,98	29	8,24	74	9,85
United King.	63,730	12,60	29	8,24	73	9,72
Italy	59,685	11,80	29	8,24	73	9,72
Spain	46,704	9,24	27	7,67	54	7,19
Poland	38,533	7,62	27	7,67	51	6,79
Romania	20,057	3,97	14	3,98	32	4,26
Netherlands	16,779	3,32	13	3,69	26	3,46
Belgium	11,161	2,21	12	3,41	21	2,79
Greece	11,062	2,19	12	3,41	21	2,79
Czech Rep.	10,516	2,08	12	3,41	21	2,79
Portugal	10,487	2,07	12	3,41	21	2,79
Hungary	9,908	1,96	12	3,41	21	2,79
Sweden	9,555	1,89	10	2,84	20	2,66
Austria	8,451	1,67	10	2,84	18	2,39
Bulgaria	7,284	1,44	10	2,84	17	2,26
Denmark	5,602	1,11	7	1,99	13	1,73
Finland	5,426	1,07	7	1,99	13	1,73
Slovakia	5,410	1,07	7	1,99	13	1,73
Ireland	4,591	0,91	7	1,99	11	1,46
Croatia	4,262	0,84	7	1,99	11	1,46
Lithuania	2,971	0,59	7	1,99	11	1,46
Slovenia	2,058	0,41	4	1,14	8	1,06
Latvia	2,023	0,40	4	1,14	8	1,06
Estonia	1,324	0,26	4	1,14	6	0,79
Cyprus	0,865	0,17	4	1,14	6	0,79
Luxembourg	0,537	0,11	4	1,14	6	0,79
Malta	0,421	0,08	3	0,85	6	0,79
In total	505,572	100	352	100	751	100
There must be 260 votes for qualified majority voting in the Council and 93 for a blocking minority. November 1, 2014 qualified majority is 55% of countries, while representing 65% of the total EU population. Votes by the listed population. There must be 72% of the countries to super qualified majority, for example in the selection of commissioners. There must be 376 members for an absolute majority in the European Parliament. See the explanations in www.euABC.com