Qualified Majority Voting
Encyclopedia : Q : QU : QUA : Qualified Majority Voting
Country| Votes | Pop. | (mill.) Germany | 29 | 82.0
| UK | 29 | 59.4
| France | 29 | 59.1
| Italy | 29 | 57.7
| Spain | 27 | 39.4
| Poland | 27 | 38.6
| Netherlands | 13 | 15.8
| Greece | 12 | 10.6
| Czech R. | 12 | 10.3
| Belgium | 12 | 10.2
| Hungary | 12 | 10.0
| Portugal | 12 | 9.9
| Sweden | 10 | 8.9
| Austria | 10 | 8.1
| Slovakia | 7 | 5.4
| Denmark | 7 | 5.3
| Finland | 7 | 5.2
| Lithuania | 7 | 3.7
| Ireland | 7 | 3.7
| Latvia | 4 | 2.4
| Slovenia | 4 | 2.0
| Estonia | 4 | 1.4
| Cyprus | 4 | 0.8
| Luxembourg | 4 | 0.4
| Malta | 3 | 0.4
| Total votes | 321 |
| Qualified majority | 232 |
| Blocking votes | 90 |
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Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) is a voting procedure employed in the Council of the European Union for some decisions. According to the procedure, each member state has a fixed number of votes. The number allocated to each country is roughly determined by its population, but progressively weighted in favour of smaller countries.
To pass a vote by QMV, all three of the following conditions must apply:
- the proposal must be supported by 232 out of the total of 321 votes (72.27%);
- the proposal must be backed by a majority of member states;
- the countries supporting the proposal must represent at least 62% of the total EU population.
Use of QMV vs unanimity
At present, QMV is used to pass certain legislation while others require unanimity among all Council members. Under the proposed Treaty establishing a constitution for Europe (which is now in a crisis period), which has to be ratified by all member states before it can enter into force, decisions in about 20 more policy areas would have been taken using QMV, leaving only key sensitive issues to be decided unanimously (including tax, social policy, defence, foreign policy and treaty revision).Supporters argue that this change will be necessary in order to streamline decision-making and prevent gridlock in a newly enlarged European Union. Some commentators have seen the change as a loss of sovereignty from individual member states, since it effectively abolishes the national veto in many areas.
See also
- This entry is related to, but not included in the elections and voting series. Other related articles can be found at the .
- Treaty establishing a constitution for Europe
- Enlargement of the European Union
- Supermajority
- Voting
External links
- euireland.ie: [Enlargement and institutional changes (voting schemes)]
- drcwww.kub.nl: [Introduction with details and links]
- BBC: [Background on the voting weights discussion]
- [Analysis and history of voting weights in the Council]
- [New winners and old losers. A priori voting power in the EU25]
- [Article at EUABC]
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