Assessing the fairness of the EU Council qualified majority voting. A voting power critical perspective of the liberal intergovernmentalist accounts

The Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) used by the Council of European Union developed to a high degree complexity from one modifying treaty another, until latest definition stipulated in Treaty Lisbon. This paper analyses this EU intra-institutional voting method using rational choice approach and emphasizes that there are situations when not even institutions, as actors, can avoid collective irrational outcome they addressing subjects such power distribution. It also addresses several shortcomings Liberal Intergovernmentalist explanatory framework focusing on insufficiently level credible institutional commitments. core part article consists investigating types internal decision-making options, proposing how be designed considered same time fair efficient, analysing close ideal type configuration is current decisional system.