Malta's votes in Council

During negotiations, Malta was allocated one minister and three votes in the Council of Ministers. This is one vote less than Luxembourg. Malta claimed that the decision taken in Nice to give Malta one vote less than Luxembourg should be corrected.

Since not all 12 candidate countries will join in 2004, temporary measures will be needed with respect to voting in Council. Malta's position is that if the Nice agreement remains unchanged, then through the temporary measures, it should be allocated a fourth vote in Council. However, this issue too will only be finalised when the countries that will join and their date of membership are known.