Glossary of Institutions, policies and enlargement of the European Union
(Starting with "Q")
©
European Communities, 1995-2007
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Qualified
majority
A qualified majority (QM) is the number
of votes required in the Council for a decision to
be adopted when issues are being debated on the basis
of Article 205(2) of the EC Treaty.
Following the 2000 Inter Governmental
Conference and the Nice Treaty, the number of votes
allocated to each Member State has been re-weighted,
in particular for those States with larger populations,
so that the legitimacy of the Council's decisions
can be safeguarded in terms of their demographic representativeness.
After 1 January 2007, following enlargement of the
Union, the QM went up to 255 votes out of a total
of 345, representing a majority of the Member States.
Moreover, a Member State may request verification
that the QM represents at least 62% of the total population
of the Union. If this is not the case, the decision
is not adopted.
As the various institutional reforms
have taken effect, QM voting (QMV) has replaced unanimous
voting, which is less effective for developing an
operational Community policy (veto risk).
The European Constitution currently
being ratified provides for 45 new QMV situations.
From 1 November 2009 the qualified majority will be
based on a twofold-majority, requiring votes in favour
from at least 55% of the Member States accounting
for at least 65% of the Union's population. To ensure
that the most populous Member States cannot block
decisions, there will have to be a blocking minority
of at least four Member States. Otherwise, the QM
will be presumed to be met even if the population
test is failed.
See:
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