“…Formally, all EU member states are equal, as each has one vote in Intergovernmental Conferences in which the EU primary law is changed. Additionally, each EU member state has one vote in the Council of Ministers based on the double majority principle applied during the ordinary legislative procedure (Cini and Pèrez‐Solòrzano Borragàn, ; Panke and Haubrich Seco, ). Yet, the states differ in two respects: first, population ranges from 460,297 in Malta to 82.5 million in Germany which is decisive for the application of the double majority principle in the Council of Ministers, since not only do at least 55 per cent of member states need to agree in order to pass a directive or a regulation, but they also need to represent at least 65 per cent of the EU population.…”