Total population for specific Union purposes
Article 4
1. For the purposes of qualified majority voting in the Council, Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with data on the total population at national level at the reference time, in accordance with Article 2(c), within eight months of the end of the reference year. 2. Member States may estimate the total population referred to in paragraph 1 from the legally resident or registered population using scientifically-based, well-documented, and publicly available statistical estimation methods.