Seanad debates
Thursday, 10 October 2002
Address by President of the European Parliament.
Regarding the weighting of votes in the Council, the reunified Germany has a population now of 81.8 million and after enlargement will have a voting weight of 8.5% at the Council table while Ireland has a population of just under 4 million and after enlargement, if we say "Yes" to the treaty, our voting weight will be just over 2%. Germany is 20 times larger by population, but just over four times bigger by weight. Does that formula represent a bad deal for the smaller state?
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