After the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union, Germany and France will account for 18.50% and 15.04% of the population of the Twenty-seven, respectively, according to the draft decision amending the EU Council's rules of procedure adopted by the Member States' ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) on Wednesday 19 December.
Under the rules of the European Treaty, a decision is deemed to be adopted by the Council when the States supporting it represent 65% of the EU population and 55% of the number of EU countries.
After Brexit, the EU population will decrease from 513.27 to 447.04 million. Germany and France will together hold almost a blocking minority (33.54% of the population).
This blocking minority will be reached if only one of the following Member States supports them: Italy (13.68% of the population of the EU), Spain (10.44%), Poland (8.50%), Romania (4.37%), Netherlands (3.87%), Belgium (2.55%), Greece (2.40%), Czech Republic (2.35%), Portugal (2.30%), Sweden (2.27%), Hungary (2.19%), Austria (1.97%), Bulgaria (1.58%).
The relative weight of other Member States in the post-Brexit EU population will be as follows: Denmark (1.29%), Finland (1.23%), Slovakia (1.22%), Ireland (1.08%), Croatia (0.92%), Lithuania (0.59%), Slovenia (0.46%), Latvia (0.43%), Estonia (0.30%), Cyprus (0.19%), Luxembourg (0.13%), Malta (0.11%).
In its decision, the Council also updated for 2019 the percentage of the population of each Member State in a Union of the Twenty-eight countries up to the date of Brexit, scheduled to date on 29 March 2019.
See: http://bit.ly/2S9z40N. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)