Majority Calculator for Council decisions
Decisions are adopted in the Councils (Council of the European Union) by majority vote. "Yes" or "No" votes are cast. The thresholds for achieving a majority may vary in keeping with the different measures to be voted on. With the German Ministry of Economics and Technology's Majority Calculator you can simulate all of the voting variants. The range of possible results are displayed immediately.
For the use of the majority calculator you need a Flash Plugin, which you can download here free of charge.
Using the computer calculator:
To influence Council majorities simply click the "Yes" or "No" button of the respective country. If no selection is made for a given country, the computer registers an abstention, which is then calculated at the same value as a "No" vote. Simultaneously with your voting, the three result fields will show the threshold at which the respectively required majority has been attained or failed. Click the "reset" button to erase your votes.
The countries shown on the map will be colored red or green depending on the votes cast. Moving the cursor to any of the displayed countries automatically opens a window with information on that country.
Council majorities
Country Majority
Where EU Treaty does not provide otherwise, the Council decides by majority vote of the Member States. With 27 countries voting, 14 "Yes" votes are needed for a simple majority and 18 for a two-thirds majority.
Vote Majority
The following applies where a Vote Majority is additionally required. Each country is assessed with a different number of votes (a minimum of 3 and maximum of 29) depending on the size of its population. There are a total of 345 votes. A simple qualified majority is attained where the majority of Member States votes "Yes" and this majority accounts for at least 255 votes. In other cases, the qualified majority requires "Yes" votes by two-thirds of the Member States, with the majority also accounting for 255 votes.
Population majority
At the request of a Member State, population figures may be reviewed to ensure that the Member States forming the qualified majority truly represent at least 62 % of the overall EU population. If this is not the case, the decision cannot be adopted.