A qualified majority is the number of votes required for a decision to be adopted on the basis of Article 205(2) of the Treaty establishing the European Community. After 1 January 2007, the qualified majority went up to 255 votes out of a total of 345. Each country can cast a certain number of votes, in proportion to the size of its population. Under the current weighting system, the Member States with the largest populations have 27-29 votes, the medium-sized countries have 7-14 votes and the small countries 3 or 4 votes.