Qualified Majority Voting from the Single European Act to the Present Day
- This study probes the way in which the use of the qualified majority voting has
developed in the Council of the European Union. The investigation begins with the
Single European Act, which expanded the field of decision making by qualified
majority in an effort to facilitate the adoption of the directives concerning the
Single Market. Quantitative data and interviews with members of the Council point
to unexpected continuity.
• The number of legislative acts adopted despite negative votes and abstentions
was low throughout the period investigated (on average, less than a
quarter of the documents requiring a qualified majority).
• Yet the search for a qualified majority rather than for universal agreement
is the driving force behind negotiations. The negotiators’ main goal is to
determine whether or not there is a blocking minority against any given
decision. The existence or the absence of such a minority determines
the moment when the presidency of the Council proposes a document’s
adoption. Today as in the past, concern over effectiveness explains why
the presidency resorts to the use of a qualified majority as a weapon
of dissuasion towards negotiators who fear ending up in a minority.
2 - Qualified majority voting from the Single European Act to the present day: an unexpected permanence
• Despite this, the minutes of these Council meetings point to a low opposition
and abstention rate, because ministers who fail to gain satisfaction
tend to rally to the majority once they know that a measure is going to be
adopted.
• The publication of votes, which began in 1993, has not put paid to this
strategy. Most decisions are taken by the preparatory committees that
prepare Council meetings (Coreper and Special Committee on Agriculture),
but the measures have to be officially adopted by the Council of Ministers,
which gives the member states the opportunity to rally to the majority
between the time a measure is unofficially agreed on and the moment it is
officially adopted.
• However, ministers of member states in which there is stringent parliamentary
oversight cannot avail themselves of that opportunity. Thus it is going
to be necessary to assess the extent to which the increase in national parliaments’
role laid down in the Treaty of Lisbon has a practical impact on
voting in the Council.
MetadatenDocument Type: | Working Paper |
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Language: | English |
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Author(s): | Stephanie Novak |
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Contributing Corporation: | Notre Europe |
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Subtitle (English): | An Unexpected Permanence |
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Publication year: | 2011 |
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Publishing Institution: | Hertie School |
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Contributing Corporation: | Notre Europe |
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Release Date: | 2017/08/04 |
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Licence of document (German): | CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 |
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Licence of document (German): | Metadaten / metadata |
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