The Treaty of Lisbon - Report Example

The Treaty of Lisbon The Treaty of Lisbon: Moving European Union Closer to a Federal set up The Treaty of Lisbon signed was by themembers of the European Union on 13 December 2007 and was to be enacted from the 1 of December 2009. This international agreement was initially titled as the Reform treaty and had provisions for amendment of the two prior treaties that lay down the groundwork for the constitution of the European Union. Provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon have an effect on both the Maastricht Treaty of 1993 (also known as the Treaty on European Union) and the precedent setting Treaty of Rome (1958) with the overall result of increasing the efficiency of the Union and providing increased check and balance systems into the unified actions of the members states. The treaty presents a more centralized version of the union democracy and strengthens the authority and control of the European Parliament, changing the role of the national parliaments and electroplates In the current system. The need for a rectified treaty for the EU’s constitutional framework was felt after the accession of 10 new member states in the Union in the 2004; the European Convention presided by the former French President Valéry Giscard dEstaing was bundled with the task of creating a constitution that would create systems for improving democracy, transparency and efficiency within the Union and its member states and allow for the enlargement of the Union through the reformed voting procedures. The constitution was developed by the end of 2004, however it failed to be ratified by the individual member states with France being the first one to reject the constitution in a public vote. Since unanimity is required to provide any new amendments in the treaties governing the of the EU, the constitutional framework had to be abandoned, however many of the points that were included in the original document would then be incorporated through the Treaty of Lisbon which was developed during the German presidency of the EU. The signing of the treaty brought the idea of a European Federalism back into focus of the political agendas. The European integration project as originally conceived of by Altiero Spinelli and other founders of the European Federalist movement was developed to cease the hostilities that had historically existed among the European nations forcing the economic and political degradation of the countries. A unified and peacefully integrated Europe with a stable democratic and political system governing the continent on the basis of federalist principles would theoretically push the nations towards greater economic growth. The new treaty introduced the system of co-decision between European Parliament and the Council of Ministers and reduced the veto powers of the member states to minimize discord and mitigate conflict. However, the treaty also supported a greater degree of participatory democracy from the citizens and national parliaments. The implementation of the treaty allowed the EU access to tools and frameworks that can meet the challenges of the 21st century jointly and by circumventing the lengthy negotiations and discussions about institutional matters. The provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon dealt with four main categories of pertinent issues. These can be summarized as, “a democratic and transparent Europe, a more efficient Europe, A Europe of rights and values, freedom, solidarity and security” and Europe as an actor on the global stage”1. From these points the treaty clarified and demarcated the individual roles and authority of the European Parliament and national parliament and provided simplified and streamlined working methods and voting rules to enable the council to act quickly and responsively to immediate concerns. A federal system fulfills two governance objects for the subject nations within the system. Firstly it provides a vertical separation and a division of responsibilities between two distinct bodies of power; there are two levels of governments in a federation which usually consist of geographically defined components. Secondly a federal system allows for the unification of distinct and culturally distant societies to achieve a political coherency while allowing then to preserve their own identify and autonomy. Given this definition, The EU is starting to resemble a federation in a number of notable legislative and governance points especially in the areas of ‘shared government’ between EU and the member states and the allocation of the jurisdiction and resources among these two levels of governments2. Furthermore, the Treaty of Lisbon has further effected the authority of “Community law” over national law and the participatory democracy allows legislation to be drafted and implemented based on majority votes over the decisions of individual member states. The treaty allows for faster decision making by extending the policy areas that come under the system of qualified majority voting in the council with the amendment that from 2014 onwards the calculation of the qualified majority will now be based on the double majority of the both the Member states and the populations, giving voice to the dual legitimacy of the Union. Technically it would mean that a 55% majority vote from the Member States must represent at least 65% of the overall population of the Union. At the same time The European Parliament, elected by the EU citizens, is provided with strengthened role in the development of European Union legislation including budgets and international policies. In effect these new rights place the parliament at an equal position to the council of ministers, creating a stronger dual governance representation for the Member States in many new policy areas3 along with increased competencies in areas such as as climate change, energy policy and civil protection. The treaty furthermore creates a new position of the “President of the European Council” who will be elected for two and half years and function as the liaison for the selection of the Commission President and the European election, creating more systemic rules for greater cooperation and integration between the member states for financial and economic concerns. The position of the "Foreign Minister" and the joint “European External Action Service” were also created to move towards a cohesive Foreign Policy and global presence for the EU. The Lisbon Treaty paved the way for the European nations from a joint economic community to a “political Union and from a Union of governments to a Union of citizens” 4. The Citizen’s initiative makes this point very clear as it introduces the responsibility of the Commission to forward a relevant policy proposal for legislation if it is commanded by one million European citizens. The treaty is certainly a step forward toward a more democratic EU; the provisions undoubtedly defining the European Union clearly as a parliamentary system. There is evidence that the Lisbon treaty resulted from the political pressure applied by the supporters of a federal Europe who called for a stronger European Parliament, democratic institutions and greater citizen representation in the Union as well as the treaties governing the system. However, there were some elements missing from the treaty which were a part of the original drafted Constitutional Treaty such as Article 1 which defined the EU as a “Union of states and citizens”; instead the Lisbon Treaty refers to the EU as being constituted of "High Contracting Parties"- the title itself subdues the desired integrated nature of the nations. While the treaty has moved EU closer towards a federal set up there are still some restrictions towards a complete federal system. At this point there are two features which remove the EU from being categorized as a true federation. Firstly, the authority of revision, amendment and construction of the constitutive treaties governing the EU remains exclusively with the member States instead of the joint government or commission. This also proves a challenge in the introduction of any new provisions in support of increasing democratic representation or federal development as any single state has the power to block to required ratifications of the treaty revisions. Secondly, the Union still does not have any fiscal federation and the right to develop joint taxation and spending policies. While the Treaty of Lisbon provided a legal framework towards greater integration for member states, the fact remained that the member states were still free to interpret and implement the provisions according to their own political and social ideologies, this diminished the impact the treaty had on the governance of the EU. The overall institutional setup and balance that was decided for the Union in the earlier treaties has remained untouched since then, with the result that improvident of any one institution was only possible if all other institutions were similarly reinforced5. The Treaty of Lisbon created innovation in the governance similar to a federal system but it did not provide any concrete changes in the way that the Union is operated and there are already demands for a more responsive and updated treaty from the supporters of a European Federation given the current economic, political and international context. References Treaty of Lisbon, The Treaty at a glance (http://europa.eu/ 2014) accessed 21 October 2014 Jo Leinen and Jan Kreutz, The Lisbon Treaty - What next? (federalist-debate.org 2008) accessed e.g. 11 January 11 Börzel T A and Risse T, Who is Afraid of a European Federation? How to Constitutionalise a Multi-Level Governance System [2000] JMCIR. Read More