Who has the power in the EU?

The European countries are in the process of reforming the EU’s institutions. If ratified, the Lisbon Treaty will have strong implicationsfor the balance of power among member states. Building on the work of Shapley (1977) and Owen (1972), we present a measure of power that is based on players’ preferences and number of votes. We applythis measure to the Council of Ministers to see who wields power now and who is likely to wield power with the future voting scheme.Further, we show how a country’s power can change based on the preferences of the agenda setter, which, in this case, is the EuropeanCommission.[...