Qualified majority voting in the Council, explained with worked figures

Qualified majority is the Council's default way of deciding: "The Council shall act by a qualified majority except where the Treaties provide otherwise" (Art 16(3) TEU). It is a double majority, of Member States and of population, and it has a few exceptions and look-alikes that the test likes to mix up. This page sets out the rule, works it through with the Council's official 2026 population figures, and lists the majorities people confuse with it.

The rule in Article 16(4) TEU

So three tests apply at once. The members voting in favour must be at least 55 % of the members of the Council; they must number at least fifteen; and the states they represent must hold at least 65 % of the Union's population. The fourth rule works the other way: if fewer than four members fail to support a proposal, it passes even if the population test would otherwise fail.

The thresholds worked out for 27 members

With 27 members, 55 % is 14.85, so the member test needs 15, which is also the Treaty's floor. 72 % is 19.44, so the reinforced rule needs 20. The population test uses the figures the Council fixes each year in Annex III to its Rules of Procedure. For 2026 they are in Council Decision (EU, Euratom) 2025/2427 of 17 November 2025, which applies from 1 January 2026.

The official population figures for 2026

Four votes worked through

The first row is the one people get wrong. Three large states can hold well over 35 % of the population and still not block a decision, because the Treaty insists on four.

The reinforced qualified majority: 72 %

Only the member threshold changes: 72 % instead of 55 %. The population threshold stays at 65 %. The trigger is the absence of a proposal from the Commission or the High Representative, not the subject matter. The same thresholds apply to the European Council when it acts by qualified majority (Art 235(1) TFEU), and the President of the European Council and the President of the Commission do not vote.

When not every member votes: Article 238(3) TFEU

Some Treaty provisions leave a member out of the vote. Article 50(4) TEU, for example, excludes the withdrawing Member State and defines the qualified majority for the withdrawal agreement under Article 238(3)(b) TFEU. In such cases the thresholds are counted against the participating members only:

• Standard: at least 55 % of the members representing the participating Member States, comprising at least 65 % of the population of these States (Art 238(3)(a) TFEU). There is no "at least fifteen" floor in this paragraph.
• Blocking minority: "at least the minimum number of Council members representing more than 35 % of the population of the participating Member States, plus one member" (Art 238(3)(a) TFEU).
• Reinforced: at least 72 % of the participating members, comprising at least 65 % of their population, where the Council does not act on a Commission or High Representative proposal (Art 238(3)(b) TFEU).

With 26 participants, for instance, 55 % is 14.3, so 15 members; 72 % is 18.72, so 19 members (our arithmetic).

Abstentions

The Treaty speaks to abstentions only for unanimity: "Abstentions by Members present in person or represented shall not prevent the adoption by the Council of acts which require unanimity" (Art 238(4) TFEU). For qualified majority, the thresholds are counted against all the members of the Council and the population of the Union, not against votes cast. An abstaining member therefore adds nothing to the majority, which in practice gives an abstention the same effect as a vote against. That is our reading of the Treaty arithmetic; we could not consult the Council's own explanatory page, which was behind a browser check when this page was written.

Where unanimity applies instead

"Except where the Treaties provide otherwise" covers a long list. The cases most relevant to the syllabus:

• The multiannual financial framework. The Council adopts the MFF regulation unanimously after obtaining Parliament's consent, given by a majority of its component members (Art 312(2) TFEU). The European Council may, unanimously, authorise the Council to use qualified majority instead. See the MFF explained.
• Own resources. The Council adopts the own resources decision unanimously after consulting Parliament, and it needs approval by the Member States (Art 311 TFEU).
• Amending a Commission proposal. Where the Council acts on a Commission proposal, it can amend it only unanimously, except in the conciliation and third-reading stages of the ordinary legislative procedure and in the budget articles listed (Art 293(1) TFEU).
• Parliament's second-reading amendments that the Commission opposes (Art 294(9) TFEU).
• Accession of a new Member State: the Council acts unanimously after consulting the Commission and with Parliament's consent (Art 49 TEU).

Majorities that are not qualified majority

Parliament's figure of 361 out of 720 is also the one Parliament itself gives on its ordinary legislative procedure pages. The full sequence of those votes is in the ordinary legislative procedure, and the difference between the two Councils is in the three Councils compared.

How qualified majority is tested

Expect the numbers to be swapped rather than invented: 55 % and 72 %, 65 % and 35 %, fifteen and four, or the Council's double majority set against Parliament's majority of component members (we estimate this from how the test is built from Treaty sentences). Learn which percentage counts members and which counts population, and when 72 % applies. The glossary gives "blocking minority" and "qualified majority" in English, French and German, and the daily quiz keeps the numbers fresh.

Worked example (our own question)

Where the Council does not act on a proposal from the Commission or from the High Representative, a qualified majority is defined as at least: (a) 55 % of the members of the Council representing at least 65 % of the population; (b) 72 % of the members of the Council representing at least 65 % of the population; (c) 72 % of the members of the Council representing at least 72 % of the population; (d) 65 % of the members of the Council representing at least 55 % of the population.

Answer: (b). Article 238(2) TFEU, quoted above. Option (a) is the standard rule in Article 16(4) TEU; (c) and (d) mix the two percentages.