Qualified majority voting from the Single European Act to present day: an unexpected permanence

This study, the second in the series that Notre Europe has devoted to the 'institutional triangle', 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. The data that the report analyses point to remarkable continuity in this field. The number of measures adopted after a formal vote remains low, despite a considerable expansion of the areas in which such a vote is permitted. Yet the search for a qualified majority rather than for universal agreement is the driving force behind negotiations.

This study explains this seeming paradox, on which the publication of votes that began in 1993 has had hardly any impact at all.