Abstract
The power of individual EU Member States has been changing over the past decades as a result of revisions to the voting systems and the enlargements of the European Union. The present article analyses the development of the voting power of individual Member States in the Council of the European Union before and after the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union. We use the calculation of the standardized Banzhaf power index to calculate the legislative power of the Member States. The calculations recorded in the table point to changes in the weights of national votes caused by Brexit. The article pays special attention to the Visegrad Group, which we define within the European Union as an informal group consisting of four Central European states - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and the Slovak Republic. The results indicate a significant growth of the voting power in Poland and more moderate growth in the other three Visegrad Group countries which contributes to the shift in the voting equilibrium within the ordinary legislative procedure of the European Union.
Highlights
The theoretical definition of small states in the theory of international economic and political relations is constantly the subject of several discussions and conflicting inconsistent approaches of many scholars and experts
The results indicate a significant growth of the voting power in Poland and more moderate growth in the other three Visegrad Group countries which contributes to the shift in the voting equilibrium within the ordinary legislative procedure of the European Union
Following the UKs withdrawal, the EP reduced its number of seats by 46 British members, and the remaining 27 originally British seats were redistributed among the remaining 27 Member States (European Parliament 2020)
Summary
The theoretical definition of small states in the theory of international economic and political relations is constantly the subject of several discussions and conflicting inconsistent approaches of many scholars and experts. The European Union, taking into account its motto, unites the 27 Member States in diversity, which, from the point of view of the theory of international relations, needs to be divided into several clusters based on power and influence on the formation of European policies. The strength and influence of individual states in the formation of European policies can be viewed from two perspectives. The first is the given representation of individual states in the negotiations of the European Parliament (EP) and the Council of the EU (Council), which is usually quantified. The present article aims to quantify the nominal power of small Member States in the European policy-making process
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