COUNCIL OF MINISTERS: NEW QUALIFIED MAJORITY CALCULATION ENDORSED.

The Council of Ministers has amended its Rules of Procedure on qualified majority voting to adjust the calculation as well as the weighting of votes. The new rules set out in a Decision adopted on October 11 will come into force on November 1, with a qualified majority representing 62% of the EU's total population. The 62% threshold equals 284.331 million European citizens and is based on data provided by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

According to Eurostat, the overall population of the EU stands at 458.599 million citizens. The weighting of votes is linked to the demographics of each Member State, with a qualified majority requiring 232 out of 321 votes. This change was made necessary by the Treaty of Nice. Each Member State must therefore submit total population data to Eurostat on a yearly basis. In turn, this enables the Council to adapt the demographic clause annually. Since the EU enlarged to ten new nations on May 1 and on a transitional basis (until October 31)...