In the Council of the European Union, most legislation is adopted with the consensus of all members. However, opposition votes and abstention on the part of member states do occur. For some time, the literature has suggested that larger member states are primarily responsible for such contestation. This paper analyzes the voting behavior of member states in the Council of the EU between 2000 and 2008 in the adoption of directives. An extensive dataset based on the monthly summaries of Council acts shows there is little correlation between member state size and voting behavior. However, comparison of voting behavior between old and new member states yields important and interesting findings.
