The impact of Brexit on the voting power in the Council of the European Union

Abstract

The article analyses the potential impact of Brexit on the voting power of member states and indirect voting power of EU residents in the Council, in the case of adopting decisions by the qualified majority of votes. The leading hypothesis of the paper assumes that the fact of leaving the EU by Great Britain leads to another transfer of voting power to the benefit of five countries with the largest populations. The aim of the paper is also to determine to what extent the indirect voting power of residents from individual member states is equal. The obtained results indicate that a flow of voting power towards the five member states with the largest populations will be a consequence of Brexit.