EUROPEAN POLITICS FUNDAMENTALS — Chapter 4, Exercise 1
Applying QMV
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QUESTION:
A proposal is supported by 16 member states, together representing
60% of the EU's total population. Using the real double-majority
rule, has the proposal passed? Explain which threshold is or isn't
met.

SOLUTION:

The proposal has NOT passed.

The double-majority rule requires both:
  1. At least 55% of member states (currently at least 15 of 27) —
     16 states clears this threshold, since 15 is the real minimum
     required.
  2. Those states together representing at least 65% of the EU's
     total population — 60% falls short of this threshold.

Because a qualified majority requires BOTH conditions to be satisfied
simultaneously, meeting only one of the two thresholds is not
sufficient. The state-count threshold (16 states) is met, but the
population threshold (60%, short of the required 65%) is not — so
the vote fails as a whole.

WHY THIS WORKS AS AN ANSWER
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The exercise is deliberately constructed so that one threshold passes
and the other doesn't, testing whether the reader understands that
"double majority" means both conditions are independently required,
not that either one alone is sufficient, and not that the two
thresholds average out or partially compensate for each other.