The procedures for voting in the Council of the European Union are described in the treaties of the European Union. The Council of the European Union (or simply "Council" or "Council of Ministers") has had its voting procedure amended by subsequent treaties and currently operates on the system set forth in the Treaty of Lisbon. The system is known as qualified majority voting is a type of consociational democracy.
Current qualified majority voting rules (since 2014)
Article 16 of the Treaty on European Union, as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon, stipulates that the Council voting arrangements of the Nice Treaty applied until 31 October 2014.
Qualified majority Article 16 also states the conditions for a qualified majority, effective since 1 November 2014: Majority of countries: 55% (comprising at least 15 of them) and Majority of population: 65%.
A blocking minority requiresin addition to not meeting one of the two conditions abovethat at least 4 countries (or, if not all countries participate in the vote, the minimum number of countries representing more than 35% of the population of the participating countries, plus one country) vote against the proposal. Thus, there may be cases where an act is passed, even though the population condition is not met. This precludes scenarios where 3 populous countries could block a decision favored by the other 24 countries.
According to the EU Regulation No 1260/2013 the usually resident population are "all persons having their usual residence in a Member State" irrespective of European Union citizenship.
The Lisbon rules eradicated the use of "artificial" voting weights. This move, first proposed in the Constitution, is based on the size of populations and, at the same time, acknowledges the smaller member states' fears of being overruled by the larger countries.
Reinforced qualified majority Article 238 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union states the conditions for a reinforced qualified majority, when acting on a proposal from neither the Commission nor the High Representative, effective since 1 November 2014: Majority of countries: 72% and Majority of population: 65%.
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.Summary of Council Acts; Council of the European Union; retrieved on 16 June 2010.
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 that the Council shall act by a qualified majority voting (QMV)However, decisions of European Council, composed by the heads of state or government of each member state, are still taken by consensus as per Article 15 of the Treaty on European Union. in areas of competenceVoting by unanimity , Council of the European Union, accessed on 2021-02-01 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:http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-03-23_en.htm New areas of qualified majority voting in Nice treaty
! Area !! Nice !! Lisbon !! Reference |- | Initiatives of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs || Unanimity || QMV following unanimous request || 15b TEU |- | Rules concerning the European Defence Agency || Unanimity || QMV || 45(2) TEU |- | Freedom to establish a business || Unanimity || QMV || 50 TFEU |- | Self-employment access rights || Unanimity || QMV || 50 TFEU |- | Freedom, security and justice – cooperation and evaluation || Unanimity || QMV || 70 TFEU |- | Border checks || Unanimity || QMV || 77 TFEU |- | Asylum || Unanimity || QMV || 78 TFEU |- | Immigration || Unanimity || QMV || 79 TFEU |- | Crime prevention incentives || Unanimity || QMV || 69c TFEU |- | Eurojust || Unanimity || QMV || 69d TFEU |- | Police cooperation || Unanimity || QMV || 69f TFEU |- | Europol || Unanimity || QMV || 69g TFEU |- | Transport || Unanimity || QMV || 71§2 TFEU |- | European Central Bank || Unanimity || QMV (in part) || 129 TFEU, 283 TFEU |- | Culture || Unanimity || QMV || 151 TFEU |- | Structural and Cohension Funds || Unanimity || QMV || 161 TFEU |- | Organisation of the Council of the European Union || Unanimity || QMV || 201b TFEU |- | European Court of Justice || Unanimity || QMV || 245, 224a, 225a TFEU |- | Freedom of movement for workers || Unanimity || QMV || 46 TFEU |- | Social security || Unanimity || QMV || 48 TFEU |- | Criminal judicial cooperation || Unanimity || QMV || 69a TFEU |- | Criminal law || Unanimity || QMV || 69b TFEU |- | President of the European Council election || (New item) || QMV || 9b§5 TEU |- | Foreign Affairs High Representative election || (New item) || QMV || 9e§1 TEU |- | Funding the Common Foreign and Security Policy || Unanimity || QMV || 28 TEU |- | Common defense policy || Unanimity || QMV || 28e TEU |- | Withdrawal of a member state || (new item) || QMV || 49a TEU |- | General economic interest services || Unanimity || QMV || 16 TFEU |- | Diplomatic and consular protection || Unanimity || QMV || 20 TFEU |- | Citizens initiative regulations || Unanimity || QMV || 21 TFEU |- | Intellectual property || Unanimity || QMV || 97a TFEU |- | Eurozone external representation || Unanimity || QMV || 115c TFEU |- | Sport || Unanimity || QMV || 149 TFEU |- | Space || Unanimity || QMV || 172a TFEU |- | Energy || Unanimity || QMV || 176a TFEU |- | Tourism || Unanimity || QMV || 176b TFEU |- | Civil protection || Unanimity || QMV || 176c TFEU |- | Administrative cooperation || Unanimity || QMV || 176d TFEU |- | Emergency international aid || Unanimity || QMV || 188i TFEU |- | Humanitarian aid || Unanimity || QMV || 188j TFEU |- | Response to natural disasters or terrorism || (new item)|| QMV || 188R§3 TFEU |- | Economic and Social Committee || QMV || QMV || 256a TFEU |- | Committee of the Regions || Unanimity || QMV || 256a TFEU |- | Economic and Social Committee || Unanimity || QMV || 256a TFEU |- | The EU budget || Unanimity || QMV || 269 TFEU
Past qualified majority voting rules (1958–2014) This section presents the former qualified majority voting systems employed in the Council of the European Union, and its predecessor institutions. While some policy areas require unanimity among Council members, for selected policy areas qualified majority voting has existed right from the start. All major treaties have shifted some policy areas from unanimity to qualified majority voting.
Whenever the community was enlarged, voting weights for new members were defined and thresholds re-adjusted by accession treaties. After its inception in 1958, the most notable changes to the voting system occurred: with the 1973 enlargement, when the number of votes for the largest member states was increased from 4 to 10, with the Treaty of Nice, when the maximum number of votes was increased to 29, thresholds became defined in terms of percentages, and a direct population-dependent condition was introduced, with the Treaty of Lisbon, when the concept of votes was abandoned in favour of a "double majority" depending only on the number of states and the population represented. All systems prescribed higher thresholds for passing acts that were not proposed by the Commission. Member states have to cast their votes en bloc (i.e., a member state may not split its votes). Hence, the number of votes rather describes the weight of a member's single vote.
The analysis of the distribution of voting power under different voting rules in the EU Council often requires the use of complex computational methods that go beyond a mere calculation of vote share, such as the Shapley-Shubik index or the Banzhaf measure.e.g. Diego Varela and Javier Prado-Dominguez (2012) 'Negotiating the Lisbon treaty: Redistribution, efficiency and power indices', AUCO Czech Economic Review 6(2): 107–124.
Treaty of Rome (1958–1973) According to Article 148 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC Treaty),Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (Rome, 25 March 1957) 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 (1973–1981) 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.Act concerning the Conditions of Accession and the Adjustments to the Treaties (PDF) 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 (1981–1986) 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.Act concerning the conditions of accession of the Hellenic Republic and the adjustments to the Treaties , Articles 12 & 14 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 (1986–1995) 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.Act concerning the conditions of accession of the Kingdom of Spain and the Portuguese Republic and the adjustments to the Treaties , Article 12 & 14 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. 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)