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Reform Treaty - Institutional Changes, part 5: Qualified Majority Voting

By Bartolus

Let's continue our mini-series on the new Treaty.

One of the biggest changes that the Lisbon-Reform Treaty brings about concerns qualified majority voting.

First, the new Treaty extends the scope of qualified majority voting. 24 existing legal bases currently requiring unanimity in the Council can be adopted by qualified majority. They concern the implementation of the area of freedom, security and justice (border controls, asylum, immigration, Eurojust, Europol), proposals under the CFSP made by the High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy at the request of the European Council, and the arrangements for monitoring the exercise of the Commission's executive powers ("comitology"). Also, 20 new legal bases have been created for adoption of measures by qualified majority. They deal with matters such as the principles and conditions for operating services of general economic interest, the arrangements for protecting intellectual property, energy, humanitarian aid, civil protection.

The second change, and the greater one, concerns the way votes in the Council are calculated. At present each member State has a "weighted vote" (29 for Germany, the UK, France and Italy, 27 for Poland and Spain, down to 3 for Malta). A qualified majority is attained - according to a complicated formula - if the bill is approved by a majority of member States and obtains 255 votes at least out of a total of 345. In addition, a member State may request that the bill be approved by member States representing at least 62% of the Union's population. That's the system established by the Nice Treaty. According to the new Treaty, that system will continue until November 1st 2014.

But from November 1st, 2014, a new system of "double majority" will apply. That new mechanism comprises two parts. The first part is that the bill must be approved by a 55% of the member States (with 27 member States, that is 15 of them). The second part is that those 15 member States must represent 65% of the population of the Union. There's a mechanism to prevent a small number of the populous states from blocking a bill: A blocking minority must comprise at least four member States. If the blocking minority is less than four states, the qualified majority will be deemed to be reached even if the population percentage is not met.

Well, that is the system that applies when the Council acts on a proposal from the Commission. But when the Council does not act on a proposal from the Commission or from the High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, a threshold of 72% of the member States, representing 65% of the population is required.

There's a transitional period from November 1st 2014 to March 31st 2017 (a concession to Poland). During that period a member State may still request application of the old weighting system in the current Article 205 EC. If new member States accede between now and 2017 the weighting system will be adapted accordingly.

If that were not complicated enough, the system is topped up by another quasi-blocking minority mechanism similar to the Ioannina compromise. That was a mechanism which took its name from an informal meeting of Foreign Affairs ministers in Ioannina, Greece in 1994 that enables a group of states close to a blocking minority but not actually amounting to one to request re-examination of a decision adopted by qualified majority. Under the new system, a group of states that cannot form a blocking minority (1/3 of the member States or states representing 25% of the population of the Union) can temporarily suspend a decision of the Council. In such a case, the Council will not take a vote and will continue to discuss the proposal for a "reasonable time" if requested to do so by a group of member States representing at least 75% of the total number of member States or 75% of the population needed to constitute a blocking minority. From April 1st 2017, the 75% threshold will be lowered to 55%. Although the Council may amend or repeal this simple-majority system, a protocol states that consensus must first be reached in the European Council.

That's it for now. Next installment will be on the changes to the division of competence between the Union and its member States.

Full post as published by EU Law Blog on January 06, 2008 (boomark / email).