The Lisbon Treaty – new horizons for EU

published on 12/1/09 2:01 PM

Photo: Radio Bulgaria

The Lisbon Treaty – new horizons for EU

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After numerous vicissitudes the Lisbon Treaty finally enters into force – December 1, 2009. It is targeted at reforming EU institutions and making them more efficient for the overall improvement of the functioning of the union as an entity. When about a month ago Czech President and outstanding Euro-skeptic Vaclav Klaus signed the ratification bill for the Lisbon Treaty, Brussels sighed with relief. It put an end to a lengthy procedure, often attacked on the part of the interests of individual member-states. It was a process intertwined by compromise, which ended well, after all. To make a long story short – as of December 1 the EU steps into a new phase of its development and establishing itself as a lading factor in world politics and economy.

The Lisbon Treaty constitutes the post of permanent chairman of the European Council, who is practically the President of the EU with a term of office of two and a half years. The first one to take up that top position is Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy who will step into office on January 1. The other novelty is the expanded competence of the supreme EU representative for foreign policy and security. British Catharine Ashton elected for that post becomes de facto Foreign Minister of the Union. She will be in charge of managing the budget for foreign aid and will also occupy the position of Vice President of the European Commission. The latter will undergo personnel restrictions as of 2014. At present every country has a European Commissioner nut in 5 years’ time their number would be cut down by 1/3. Meanwhile, under the Lisbon Treaty the number of seats at the EP increases from 736 to 751. That gives Bulgarian the opportunity to take one more MEP seat and will have 18 representatives at the EP.

Bulgaria will benefit from yet another new aspect in the future functioning of the EC. The national parliaments of member-countries will receive the right to have their say in the adoption of new European legislature. If a third of them reject a given draft bill, the European Commission would have to change it. Practically it means that if certain countries /and in most cases those would be among the smaller EU members/ find that it is not in their interest for a given draft document to be circulated, they would be able to unite over the idea of that draft no to pass in Parliament – that is, there would be no dictatorship on the part larger countries over smaller members when decisions are made at the EU.
Among the other changes in the future development of the EU for the first time there appears an option of stepping out of the Union. This can happen after re-negotiating conditions under which a particular country has become EU member. We should also mention that the Lisbon Treaty gives the possibility in case there is a petition signed by 1 million EU citizens, that the European Commission should initiate a draft bill on the sphere the petition refers to.

The entering into force of the Lisbon Treaty opens new horizons for the EU. Besides being purely institutional, the changes aim at making the EU more open, more transparent and to a greater extent facing the problems of average European citizens. These are ideas fundamental to the launching of the EU upon its inauguration, which, however, for one reason or another, have not been put through until now.

English version: Iva Letnikova

По публикацията работи: Dimitar Ushev

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