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The Treaty on European Union based the Union´s activities on three "pillars" and established that mainly decisions should be taken either by qualified majority voting or by unanimity.
Pillar One covers a wide range of Community policies (such as agriculture, transport, environment, energy, research and development) designed and implemented according to a well-proven decision-making process which begins with a Commission proposal. Following a detailed examination by experts and at the political level, the Council can either adopt the Commissional proposal, amend it or ignore it.
The Treaty on European Union increased the European Parliament's say through a co-decision procedure (chapter 2.1.1, 3.), which means that a wide range of legislation (such as internal market, consumer affairs, trans-European networks, education and health) is adopted both by the Parliament and the Council.
In the vast majority of cases (including agriculture, fisheries, internal market, environment and transport), the Council decides by a qualified majority vote with Member States carrying the following weightings:
Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom: 10 votes
Spain: 8 votes
Belgium, Greece, the Netherlands and Portugal: 5 votes
Austria and Sweden: 4 votes
Ireland, Denmark and Finland: 3 votes
Luxembourg: 2 votes
Total 87 votes
When a Commission proposal is involved, at least 62 votes must be cast in favour. In other cases, the qualified majority is also 62 votes, but these must be cast by at least 10 Member States. In practice, the Council tries to reach the widest possible consensus before taking a decision so that, for example, only about 14 % of the legislation adopted by the Council in 1994 was the subject of negative votes and abstentions.
Those policy areas in Pillar One which remain subject to unanimity include taxation, industry, culture, regional and social funds and the framework programme for research and technology development.
For the other two pillars created by the Treaty on European Union - Common Foreign and Security Policy (Pillar Two) and Cooperation in the fields of Justice and Home Affairs (Pillar Three), the Council is the decision-maker as well as the promoter of initiatives. Unanimity is the rule in both pillars.
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