Brexit: The Belated Threat

Abstract

Debates on an EU-leaving referendum arose in several member states after Brexit. We want to highlight how the exit of an additional country affects the power distribution in the Council of the European Union. We inspect the power indices of the member states both with and without the country which might leave the union. Our results show a pattern connected to a change in the threshold of the number of member states required for a decision. An exit that modifies this threshold benefits the countries with high population, while an exit that does not cause such a change benefits the small member states. According to our calculations, the threat of Brexit would have worked differently before the entry of Croatia.