physics is phun

Had I known that this kind of research could have been part of my job description, perhaps I would have stayed in physics.

The European Constitution is unscientific, will not achieve the objective of “one person one vote”, and will give Germany undue influence, according to a new analysis.

As Britain prepares a referendum on the new constitution, the study by scientists says that there are flaws in the most controversial aspect, the voting rules at the EU Council of Ministers.

Germany will gain the most voting power by far under the new constitution, giving it 37 per cent more clout than the UK, when they will have equal influence when the Treaty of Nice is introduced fully later this year.

Spain and Poland, who have held up the constitution in previous negotiations, will be the biggest losers.

The claims, in the journal Physics World, are made by Dr Karol Zyczkowski, a physicist, and Dr Wojciech Slomczynski, a mathematician, both from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, and are backed by about 50 scientists across Europe. […]

The scientists use a branch of mathematics called game theory to calculate how much power each country will have to sway the Council of Ministers if the new constitution is adopted, where a double majority is required to pass a vote – more than 15 states (out of 25, with two more soon) and 65 per cent of the bloc's population.

They report that the UK's voting power will drop from being the same as that of Germany, when the Treaty of Nice is introduced in November, to about 70 per cent of German voting power under the new constitution, reflecting the relative population size.

Proportional voting power is not the only issue. Germany, for instance, is the biggest net contributor to the EU budget—although Brussels is currently scheming to make Britain the Continent's chief sucker.

Then there's the EU constitution itself. Supposedly, a rejection of the document by referendum in any member nation would be enough to kill it. But EUniks are already notorious for resubmitting referenda until the pesky voters return the right answer. Britain's Tony Blair has already promised a vote on the constitution in the UK (a reversal of his previous position), though if the results of last month's elections are any guide, the Brits are in a decisively anti-EU mood.

In a Bastille Day surprise, French President Chirac announced plans for a constitutional referendum in France. His electorate is decidedly more Eurocentric—but then again, the Gauls have always seen greater European integration as a means for maintaining French influence on the Continent and beyond.

Now…where was I? Oh, right—physics:

To represent true voting power, Penrose devised the “square root law”, where the influence of each country is proportional to the square root of its population size.

The scientists have adopted this law to propose what has been nicknamed “the Jagiellonian Compromise”: EU citizens would have the same voting power if each member state were given a weight that was proportional to the square root of its population, and if new legislation required 62 per cent of the votes at the council. The result would be to give all citizens equal influence, regardless of their home country.

The Jagiellonian Compromise. Well, it's as least as good a name as, say, The Bourne Supremacy.

(Initial link via Orrin Judd.)