When a decision is taken by qualified majority in the Council, the weighting of votes is the result of a compromise between Member States which, although equal in law, differ in various respects. One factor determining the number of votes a Member State has is the size of its population, with an adjustment which leads to relative over-representation of the countries with a small population.
This system has worked well so far, since it has given legitimacy to the decisions taken. With the current distribution of votes it is impossible for the "large" countries to combine to put the "small" countries in a minority and vice versa. This gives a guarantee that decisions taken by qualified majority have the broadest possible support.
With a view to enlargement, a revision of the scale of weightings is being considered to ensure that the relative weight of the "small" and "medium-sized" countries is not out of proportion to the size of their population. In addition to this adjustment of the number of votes granted to each Member State, the possible introduction of a "double majority" system is also being discussed.
With the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, a Protocol on the institutions will be annexed to the Treaty on European Union, providing for an intergovernmental conference to be convened at least one year before membership of the Union exceeds twenty, in order to carry out a comprehensive review of the Treaty provisions on the composition and functioning of the institutions. The Protocol also links the question of the weighting of votes to the size of the Commission.
A number of Member States and the Commission argue that the weighting of votes and the broader issue of enlargement should be linked to the question of extending qualified majority voting (see the joint declaration by Belgium, France and Italy attached to the Final Act of the Intergovernmental Conference).
WEU is an organisation which was set up in 1948 for the purposes of cooperation on defence and security. It consists of the Member States of the EU (except Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland and Sweden, which have observer status). Iceland, Norway and Turkey are associated States. The Treaty on European Union raised WEU to the rank of an "integral part of the development of the Union", while preserving its institutional autonomy, and gave it the task of elaborating and implementing decisions and actions which had defence implications.
In their Maastricht Declaration of 10 December 1991, the WEU Member States invited the European countries that were members of NATO but not of the European Union to become associate members of WEU. There are three such countries: Iceland, Norway and Turkey. Their associate member status, which was specified in the Petersberg Declaration of 19 June 1992, allows them to participate fully in the meetings of the WEU Council and its working parties. A permanent liaison procedure enables them to be associated with the WEU Planning Cell. They are also entitled to express their views, but cannot veto a decision on which the Member States have reached a consensus. They can associate themselves with their decisions and join in WEU military operations under its command.
Ten Central and Eastern European countries enjoy the status of Associate Partner: Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and the three Baltic States. It allows them to attend meetings of the WEU Council, where they are kept regularly informed of the activities of the Council working groups; they may be invited to participate in these groups on an ad hoc basis. They also have a permanent liaison arrangement with the Planning Cell. Finally, they may be involved in decisions taken by the Member States on the tasks listed in the Petersberg Declaration: humanitarian and rescue tasks, peacekeeping tasks, and tasks of combat forces in crisis management including peacemaking.
In their Maastricht Declaration of 10 December 1991 the Member States belonging to the WEU proposed that the other Member States of the European Union should be invited to joint the WEU or to become observers. Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland and Sweden have observer status, which means that they may attend the meetings of the WEU Council, be invited to meetings of working parties and, on request, speak at such meetings.
Commission White Papers are documents containing proposals for Community action in a specific area. In some cases they follow a Green Paper published to launch a consultation process at European level. Examples include the White Papers on the completion of the internal market, on growth, competitiveness and employment and the approximation of the laws of the associated states of Central and Eastern Europe in areas of relevance to the internal market. When a White Paper has been favourably received by the Council, it can become the action programme for the Union in the area concerned.