Voting practice

In practice, the Council targeted unanimous decisions, and qualified majority voting was often simply used as a means to pressure compromises for consensus. For example, in 2008, 128 out of 147 Council decisions were unanimous. Within the remaining decisions, there was a total of 32 abstentions and 8 votes against the respective decision. These opposing votes were cast twice by Luxembourg and once by each of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Netherlands, and Portugal.^[3]

Policy areas

The Council, jointly with the European Parliament, has policy-making, legislative and budgetary functions. The Council is composed of the ministers of member states responsible for a specific area of policy. The ministers or their representative will commit the government of the member state in questions of policy and cast the member state vote. The Lisbon Treaty specifies in Article 16^[4] that the Council shall act by a qualified majority voting (QMV)^[5] in areas of competence^[6] with certain exceptions. Qualified majority voting now extends to policy areas that required unanimity according to the Nice Treaty.

The new areas of QMV are:^[7]

Treaty of Rome (1958–73)

According to Article 148 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC Treaty),^[9] acts of the Council required for their adoption:

• 12 votes (if the act was proposed by the Commission), or
• 12 votes by at least 4 member states (if the act was not proposed by the Commission).

The values above are related to the EU-6, the founding member states. The treaty allocated the votes as follows:

• 4 votes: France, Germany, Italy,
• 2 votes: Belgium, Netherlands,
• 1 vote: Luxembourg.

Under this system, Luxembourg had no voting power for acts proposed by the Commission.

Accession Treaty (1973–81)

Article 148 of the EEC Treaty, specifying the qualified majority voting system of the Council, was amended by Article 8 of the Accession Treaty regulating the enlargement of the community by Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.^[10] Acts of the Council now required for their adoption:

• 41 votes (if the act was proposed by the Commission), or
• 41 votes by at least 6 member states (if the act was not proposed by the Commission).

These values were now related to the EU-9. The treaty allocated the votes as follows:

• 10 votes: France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom,
• 5 votes: Belgium, Netherlands,
• 3 votes: Denmark, Ireland,
• 2 votes: Luxembourg.

Accession Treaty (1981–86)

Article 148 of the EEC Treaty, specifying the qualified majority voting system of the Council, was amended by Article 14 of the Accession Treaty regulating the enlargement of the community by Greece.^[11] Acts of the Council now required for their adoption:

• 45 votes (if the act was proposed by the Commission), or
• 45 votes by at least 6 member states (if the act was not proposed by the Commission).

The votes allocated previously to the EU-9 did not change. Greece was allocated 5 votes.

Accession Treaty (1986–95)

Article 148 of the EEC Treaty, specifying the qualified majority voting system of the Council, was amended by Article 14 of the Accession Treaty regulating the enlargement of the community by Portugal and Spain.^[12] Acts of the Council now required for their adoption:

• 54 votes (if the act was proposed by the Commission), or
• 54 votes by at least 8 member states (if the act was not proposed by the Commission).

The votes allocated previously to the EU-10 did not change. To the new members, the following votes were allocated:

• 8 votes: Spain,
• 5 votes: Portugal.

The Treaty of Maastricht established the European Community Treaty (EC Treaty) where the qualified majority voting system was detailed in Article 148.^[13] While this treaty transferred some policy areas subject to unanimity to qualified majority, it neither changed the voting weights nor the thresholds.

Accession Treaty (1995–2004)

Article 148 of the EC Treaty, specifying the qualified majority voting system of the Council, was amended by Article 8 of the Accession Treaty regulating the enlargement of the community by Austria, Finland, and Sweden.^[14] Acts of the Council now required for their adoption:

• 62 votes (if the act was proposed by the Commission), or
• 62 votes by at least 10 member states (if the act was not proposed by the Commission).

The votes allocated previously to the EU-12 did not change. To the new members, the following votes were allocated:

• 4 votes: Austria, Sweden,
• 3 votes: Finland.

Treaty of Nice (2004–14/17)

More information Member state ...

Comparison of voting weights
Population in millions as of 1 January 2003 (Treaty of Nice)^[15]

Member state	Population		Weights		Penrose[16]
Germany	82.54m	16.5%	29	8.4%	9.55%
France	59.64m	12.9%	29	8.4%	8.11%
UK	59.33m	12.4%	29	8.4%	8.09%
Italy	57.32m	12.0%	29	8.4%	7.95%
Spain	41.55m	9.0%	27	7.8%	6.78%
Poland	38.22m	7.6%	27	7.8%	6.49%
Romania	21.77m	4.3%	14	4.1%	4.91%
Netherlands	17,02m	3.3%	13	3.8%	4.22%
Greece	11.01m	2.2%	12	3.5%	3.49%
Portugal	10.41m	2.1%	12	3.5%	3.39%
Belgium	10.36m	2.1%	12	3.5%	3.38%
Czech Rep.	10.20m	2.1%	12	3.5%	3.35%
Hungary	10.14m	2.0%	12	3.5%	3.34%
Sweden	8.94m	1.9%	10	2.9%	3.14%
Austria	8.08m	1.7%	10	2.9%	2.98%
Bulgaria	7.85m	1.5%	10	2.9%	2.94%
Denmark	5.38m	1.1%	7	2.0%	2.44%
Slovakia	5.38m	1.1%	7	2.0%	2.44%
Finland	5.21m	1.1%	7	2.0%	2.39%
Ireland	3.96m	0.9%	7	2.0%	2.09%
Lithuania	3.46m	0.7%	7	2.0%	1.95%
Latvia	2.33m	0.5%	4	1.2%	1.61%
Slovenia	2.00m	0.4%	4	1.2%	1.48%
Estonia	1.36m	0.3%	4	1.2%	1.23%
Cyprus	0.72m	0.2%	4	1.2%	0.89%
Luxembourg	0.45m	0.1%	4	1.2%	0.70%
Malta	0.40m	0.1%	3	0.9%	0.66%
EU	484.20m	100%	345	100%	100%

Close

The voting system of the Council as defined in the Treaty of Nice^[17] was supposed to enter into force on 1 January 2005.^[18][19] However, the voting system was changed before that date by the Treaty of Accession 2003, which entered into force on 1 May 2004. During a temporary period that extended to 1 November 2004, the old pre-Nice voting system was kept, but adapted to the new number of member states.^[20] From 1 November 2004, a new voting system based on the Nice system entered into force. The voting weights of the member states according to that voting system are shown in the table on the right. The voting system was replaced by the Treaty of Lisbon, effective 1 November 2014.^{[lower-alpha 1]}

The following conditions applied to taking decisions:

• Majority of countries: 50% + one, if proposal made by the Commission; or else at least two-thirds (66.67%),^[22] and
• At least 232 votes (1 November 2004–31 December 2006), 255 votes (1 January 2007–30 June 2013), or 260 votes (1 July 2013–31 October 2014), and
• Majority of population: 62%.

The last condition was only checked upon request by a member state.^[23]

In the absence of consensus, qualified majority voting was the Council's key way of decision-making. In terms of the statistics before Croatia became a member of the EU (1 July 2013), the pass condition translated into:

1. At least 14 (or 18, if proposal was not made by the Commission) countries,
2. At least 255 of the total 345 voting weights,
3. At least 311 million people represented by the states that vote in favour.

The last requirement was almost always already implied by the condition on the number of voting weights. The rare exceptions to this could occur in certain cases when a proposal was backed by exactly three of the six most populous member states but not including Germany, that is, three of France, UK, Italy, Spain and Poland, and by all or nearly all of the 21 other members.

Note that the Commission could make a proposal in a way that removed the requirement for a qualified majority. For example, the Anti-Dumping Advisory Committee (ADAC) could approve a proposal to impose tariffs based on a simple, unweighted majority, but overturning it would have required a qualified majority because this meant voting against a Commission proposal. This greatly increased the power of small member states in such circumstances.^{[citation needed]}

The declarations of the conference that adopted the Treaty of Nice contained contradictory statements concerning qualified majority voting after the enlargement of the European Union to 25 and 27 members: one declaration^[24] specified that the qualifying majority of votes would increase to a maximum of 73.4%, contradicting another declaration^[25] which specified a qualifying majority of 258 votes (74.78%) after enlargement to 27 countries. However, the treaties of accession following the Treaty of Nice clarified the required majority.

After the accession of Croatia, on 1 July 2013, at least 260 votes out of a total of 352 by at least 15 member states were required for legislation to be adopted by qualified majority. Croatia had 7 votes (the same as Denmark, Ireland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Finland).^[26]

From 1 July 2013, the pass condition translated into:

1. At least 15 (or 18, if proposal was not made by the Commission) countries,
2. At least 260 of the total 352 voting weights,
3. At least 313.6 million people represented by the states that vote in favour.

Penrose method (rejected)

Poland proposed the Penrose method (also known as the "square root method"), which would narrow the weighting of votes between the largest and smallest countries in terms of population. The Czech Republic supported this method to some extent, but has warned it would not back a Polish veto on this matter. All the other states remained opposed.^[27] After previously refusing to discuss the issue, the German government agreed to include it for discussion at the June council.^[28] The given percentage is the game theoretical optimal threshold,^[29] and is known as the "Jagiellonian Compromise".^[30] The Penrose method voting weights allocated to the states are shown in the adjacent table.

According to the proposal, the requirement for an act to pass in the Council was:

• Majority of voting weights: 61.4%.