Council Decision

of 14 December 2010

amending the Council’s Rules of Procedure

(2010/795/EU)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on European Union,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 240(3) thereof,

Having regard to Article 2(2) of Annex III to the Council’s Rules of Procedure1,

Whereas:

(1)

Article 3(3), fourth subparagraph, of the Protocol (No 36) on transitional provisions annexed to the Treaties provides that, until 31 October 2014, when an act is to be adopted by the Council by a qualified majority, and if a member of the Council so requests, it shall be verified that the Member States constituting the qualified majority represent at least 62 % of the total population of the Union calculated according to the population figures set out in Article 1 of Annex III to the Council’s Rules of Procedure (hereinafter ‘Rules of Procedure’).

(2)

Article 2(2) of Annex III to the Rules of Procedure provides that, with effect from 1 January each year, the Council, in accordance with the data available to the Statistical Office of the European Union on 30 September of the preceding year, amends the figures set out in Article 1 of that Annex.

(3)

The Rules of Procedure should therefore be amended accordingly for 2011,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

Article 1 of Annex III to the Rules of Procedure shall be replaced by the following:

Article 1

For the purposes of implementing Article 16(5) of the TEU and Article 3(3) and (4) of the Protocol (No 36) on transitional provisions, the total population of each Member State for the period from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2011 shall be as follows:

Member State

Population(× 1 000)

Germany

81 802,3

France

64 714,1

United Kingdom

62 008,0

Italy

60 340,3

Spain

45 989,0

Poland

38 167,3

Romania

21 462,2

Netherlands

16 575,0

Greece

11 305,1

Belgium

10 827,0

Portugal

10 637,7

Czech Republic

10 506,8

Hungary

10 014,3

Sweden

9 340,7

Austria

8 375,3

Bulgaria

7 563,7

Denmark

5 534,7

Slovakia

5 424,9

Finland

5 351,4

Ireland

4 467,9

Lithuania

3 329,0

Latvia

2 248,4

Slovenia

2 047,0

Estonia

1 340,1

Cyprus

803,1

Luxembourg

502,1

Malta

413,0

Total

501 090,4

Threshold (62 %)

310 676,1

Article 2

This Decision shall enter into force on the day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

It shall apply from 1 January 2011.

Done at Brussels, 14 December 2010.

For the Council

The President

S. Vanackere