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Bridging Qualified Majority and Unanimity Decision-Making in the EU
[research report]
Corporate Editor
Institut für Höhere Studien (IHS), Wien
Abstract The EU has tried to bridge decision making by qualified majority and unanimity over the years by expanding qualified majorities (consensus) or by making unanimities easier to achieve. I call this decision-making procedure q-“unanimity” and trace its history from the Luxembourg compromise to the Lisb... view more
The EU has tried to bridge decision making by qualified majority and unanimity over the years by expanding qualified majorities (consensus) or by making unanimities easier to achieve. I call this decision-making procedure q-“unanimity” and trace its history from the Luxembourg compromise to the Lisbon Treaty, and to more recent agreements. I analyze the most recent and explicit mechanism of this bridging (article 31 (2) of the Lisbon Treaty) and identify one specific means by which the transformation of qualified majorities to unanimities is achieved: the reduction of precision or scope of the decision, so that different behaviors can be covered by it. I provide empirical evidence of such a mechanism by analyzing legislative decisions. Finally, I argue that this bridging is a ubiquitous feature of EU institutions, used in Treaties as well as in legislative decision-making.... view less
Keywords
EU; decision making process; foreign policy; Lisbon Treaty; nation state; political decision; majority rule; European Policy; decision making; European institution
Classification
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
European Politics
Document language
English
Publication Year
2013
City
Wien
Page/Pages
42 p.
Series
Reihe Politikwissenschaft / Institut für Höhere Studien, Abt. Politikwissenschaft, 132
ISSN
1605-8003
Status
Published Version; reviewed
Licence
Deposit Licence - No Redistribution, No Modifications