The Evolution of Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) of the Council

1. The Evolution of Qualified Majority
Voting (QMV) of the Council

2. How does the Council vote?
• Simple majority voting (a country saying “yes” = one vote)
• reached if at least 14/27 Council members vote in favour
• for procedural matters
• e.g. the adoption of its own rules of procedure and organisation of its secretariat general
• Unanimous vote (everyone saying “yes”)
• for a number of “sensitive” matters
• e.g. common foreign and security policy and EU financies
• Qualified majority voting (QMV) (a country saying “yes” = ? vote)
• The most widely used voting method in the Council (About 80% of all EU legislation)

3. How does QMV look like for now?

4. • A qualified majority is reached if
two conditions are met:
• 1. 55% of member states vote in
favour（15/27)
• 2. Supported by member states
representing at least 65% of the
population
• Blocking minority: at least 4 Council
members representing more than
35% of the EU population.
• From Lisbon Treaty (2014)
Double Majority Voting

5. How did QMV look like in the past?

6. Weighted Voting (1958 – 2003)
• Distribution of votes: the weight (importance) of a country’s “yes”
• Treaty of Rome (1958–73)
• 4 votes: France, Germany, Italy,
• 2 votes: Belgium, Netherlands,
• 1 vote: Luxembourg
• Quality Majority quota (threshold): the number of votes for a final pass
• Treaty of Rome (1958–73)
• 12 votes（out of 17）
• For a given issue, if Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg say “yes” but
France and Germany say “no”, will it be a pass?

9. How to calculate new weights and new threshold
for each enlargement?
• very complicated, and kind of “mysterious”
• primarily although not exactly according to its population size
• difficult, repetitive and opaque political process of negotiating

10. From weighted voting to double majority voting
Treaty of Nice and Treaty of Lisbon

11. Treaty of Nice (2003-2014):
A flawed compromise
• For the first time proposed for replacing weighted voting by double
majority voting
• However,
• Germany: greater representation of its population
• France: “symbolic parity”
• Compromise reached:
• a majority of member states plus weighted voting (a “double majority”)

12. A (quasi) “double majority”
• At least 14/28 countries say yes
• At least 255 of the total 345 voting weights
for a pass (74%)
• Majority of population: 62%
(The last condition was only checked upon
request by a member state.)

13. Treaty of Lisbon (2014 – present):
a true double majority completed
But wait...why would they push for reforming the electing system from
weighted voting to double majority?

14. Rationale 1:
• To be more proportional to the
population:
• too much influence from the small
and medium sized countries
• E.g. Germany: 82.5 million people, 29
votes -- 1 vote per 2.84 million
Germans
• Malta: 0.4 million people, 3 votes -- 1
vote per 0.13 million Maltese
• A union of the states or a union of
the people?

15. Rationale 2:
• For more simplicity and
transparency
• No need to attribute new weighted
votes and set new thresholds each
time a new country acceded to the
European Union
• No difficult and opaque political
process of negotiating

16. Rationale 3
• To be more efficient and lower the threshold for decision-making
• high threshold for a pass
• huge blocking power for certain countries
• The four possible blocking combinations (1) Germany, France, UK; (2) Germany, France,
Italy; (3) Germany, France, Spain; and (4) Germany, UK, Italy.
• Poland also has a huge blocking power.
Periods of
time
Treaty of
Rome
Accession
Treaty
79)
Accession
Treaty
79)
Accession
Treaty
2003)
Treaty of Treaty of
Lisbon
Thresholds
for a pass
70.6% 71.4% 71.1% 71.3% 74% 65%

17. “65% of the population” -a matter of contention in
the reform
• Spain and Poland: raise population threshold from 60% to 70%
• To maintain the blocking power
• Smaller countries: never accept a 70% population threshold
• To maintain their representation
• 65% then...

19. And also, Treaty of Lisbon achieved more than
that.

20. The expansion of QMV to more issue areas previously
subject to unanimity voting

21. Still, for sensitive issues…
• Taxation
• EU financies
• Common Foreign and Security Policy
• …
• Intergovernmental or Supernational?

22. To recap
• Three ways of voting in the Council
• simple majority, qualified majority voting and unanimity voting
• Weighted voting (1958 – 2003)
• A quasi-double majority voting - Treaty of Nice (2003-2014)
• Double majority – Treaty of Lisbon (2014 – present)

23. Thank you for your attention.
• References:
1. Dennis Leech, "Fair Reweighting of the Votes in the EU Council of Ministers and the Choice of Majority Requirement for
Qualified Majority Voting during Successive Enlargements”, London School of Economics CSGR Working Paper No 75/01,
June 2001.
2. Stefaan Van den Bogaert, “Qualified Majority Voting in the Council: First Reflections on the New Rules”, March 2007,
Maastricht journal of European and comparative law ,15(1):97-108.
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Nice#Provisions_of_the_treaty
4. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/council-eu/voting-system/voting-calculator/
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_in_the_Council_of_the_European_Union
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Lisbon#Council_of_Ministers
7. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/council-eu/voting-system/
8. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/4/the-treaty-of-nice-and-the-convention-on-the-future-of-europe