The Nice summit also took a decisive step in projecting how the new members would fit into existing decision-making structures. Following days of difficult debate on how members in the future would decide on the most difficult issues, summit participants agreed on a formula to re-weight votes in the important Council of Ministers. All of the candidate states were included in the re-weighting and received relatively favorable treatment in the assignment of votes. Under the formula, Poland will have equal weight with Spain with 27 votes, leaving it just two votes shy of Germany, the EU's most populous country. Summit participants also agreed to raise the number of EU commissioners to 27 from the current 20, suggesting that some day each member will have its own commissioner.
Candidates are still well-advised to keep an eye on developments.
Negotiations on truly difficult issues such as agriculture and the free movement of labor have not yet commenced. And before agreement with the candidates can be reached, the EU must reach consensus on changes in its own common agricultural policy.