02/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - "Qualified majority or not? Will France, Germany and the United Kingdom be able to block a decision? Or can all the new small Member States adopt a directive on their own?" To answer such questions, the Danish EU Information Centre has invented a "calculator" which allows different possibilities to be imagined on the basis of Article I-25 of the Constitutional Treaty and Eurostat 2002 figures on the European population. The centre recalls that qualified majority should in future consist of at least 55% of Council ministers and at least 65% of the EU population, and at least 15 Member States. The blocking minority should comprise at least 4 Member States with over 35% of the EU population. Thus, although they have almost 44% of EU population, Germany, France and Italy cannot block a decision, because the blocking minority must be comprised of at least four member States. (http: //http://www.euo.dk/emner_en/fremtid/forfatning/flertal/ ).