Qualified Majority Voting

Decisions in the Council are taken by vote. Countries with a larger population have more votes. But to be fair to smaller countries the numbers are weighted in their favour.

Usually the Council takes decisions by qualified majority voting (QMV). The 27 EU countries have a total of 345 votes between them.

A qualified majority is reached

  • if the measure is approved by a majority of the member states (on some issues a two-thirds majority is needed), and ...
  • a minimum of 255 votes has been cast in favour;
  • a member state may also ask for confirmation that the votes in favour represent at least 62% of the total population of the Union. If this is not so, the decision cannot be adopted.

Votes by country

Country Population
(millions)		 Number of Votes
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
United Kingdom		 8.2
10.5
7.7
0.7
10.2
5.4
1.3
5.2
62.8
82.4
11.1
10.0
4.2
58.7
2.2
3.4
0.4
0.4
16.3
38.1
10.5
21.6
5.3
2.0
43.7
9.0
60.3		 10
12
10
4
12
7
4
7
29
29
12
12
7
29
4
7
4
3
13
27
12
14
7
4
27
10
29

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Qualified Majority Voting