Commission proposes move to qualified majority voting on EU tax matters

The European Commission has published a roadmap for moving away from unanimity and towards qualified majority voting (QMV) by member states for making policy in some areas of EU taxation.

Under QMV a proposal is passed if 55% of member states vote in favour of it and the proposal is supported by member states representing at least 65% of the EU’s population. A decision can still be stopped by a ‘blocking minority’ but this must be formed by at least four member states representing more than 35% of the EU population. It is the method used for most EU proposals; taxation is the last policy area in which decision-making exclusively relies on unanimity.

The commission has proposed a four-step progression towards decision-making based on QMV.