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Voting in the European Union - Central Europe’s lost voice

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Abstract

Ten Central European countries became members of the European Union in the years 2004 - 2007. They constitute 20% of the EU’s total population; and even though their economic output is much lower, it rises dynamically. New members’ impact on the EU policies has nevertheless been limited. This is due not only to the arcane voting rules within the EU, but also to the lack of a common agenda among the Central European countries. Our paper illustrates that the new members rarely vote together and that their influence is thus fairly limited. We argue that as the EU seemingly lacks energy to implement further reforms that would stimulate its economy, impetus for change may come from Central European countries. To that end, however, they have to coordinate their voting and become a more coherent voting group than they are now.

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  • Ondřej Schneider, 2008. "Voting in the European Union - Central Europe’s lost voice," Working Papers IES 2008/22, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, revised Sep 2008.
    • Handle: RePEc:fau:wpaper:wp2008_22
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    1. Alesina, Alberto & Wacziarg, Romain, 1999. "Is Europe going too far?," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 1-42, December.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    European Union; voting system; European Council; new member states;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J08 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics Policies
    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects
    • K31 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Labor Law

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