Is the Allocation of Voting Power Among the EU States Fair?

This paper assesses the current distribution of voting power in the EU Council of Ministers in terms of fairness. The aim of this paper is three-fold. First, we define fairness in the European context and discuss the potential definitions of the European Union; a state, an association of states or a federal state. Second, we look for a definition of the EU which, in terms of power allocation, corresponds best to the respective fairness criteria. Lastly, we suggest an empirical method to determine fair power allocations with a given definition of the EU.