Brussels, 22/10/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Council has fixed for one year until 31 December 2005 the numbers to be used for calculating qualified majority under the Nice Treaty to allow, at any time at the request of any Member State, verification of whether the 62% of population threshold has been met.
On the basis of figures provided by Eurostat, the European Union's population amounts to 458 599 000 individuals. The 62% threshold is therefore fixed at 284 331 400 persons to be brought together according to the following grid (in thousands of persons): Germany 82 531.7; France 61 684.7; United Kingdom 59 651.5; Italy 57 888.2; Spain 42 345.3; Poland 38 190.6; Netherlands 16 258.0; Greece 11 041.1; Portugal 10 474.7; Belgium 10 396.4; Czech Republic 10 211.5; Hungary 10 116.7; Sweden 8 975.7; Austria 8 114.0; Denmark 5 397.6; Slovakia 5 380.1; Finland 5 219.7; Ireland 4 027.5; Lithuania 3 445.9; Latvia 2 319.2; Slovenia 1 996.4; Estonia 1 350.6; Cyprus 730.4; Luxembourg 451.6; Malta 399.9. This decision was published in the Official Journal L319 of 20 October 2004.