In Lisbon, Friday October 19, 2 am local time, Portuguese Prime Minister Socrates announced a ‘victory for Europe’: the 27 EU Member States agreed to refresh their consensus about the future direction of the Union with the new Reform Treaty.
The treaty will enable the EU to move forward and address more effectively the pressing global issues. On December 13 the treaty will be formally signed in the Portuguese capital, subsequently go for ratification to the Member States next year and coming into place ahead of the elections of the new European Parliament in June 2009.
‘Everyone can walk away from this summit feeling satisfied that there is reached a good result. A particular credit must go the Portuguese EU Presidency who have steered the negotiations with precision and professionalism’, reacted Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, who branded the agreement as ‘historic’ providing the EU with the ‘capacity to act’.
Gordon Brown, Britain’s Prime Minister, succeeded in winning more opt-outs for his country. This was considered as counter-productive and futile in the long run given the imperative for the EU to act coherently in fields such as the fight against terrorism, justice and foreign policy. However, the new treaty allows nine or more member states who like to cooperate more intensively to do so.
The new treaty introduces instead of the every six month rotating EU Presidency an EU President, a post that can be held up for to five years. The post of the foreign policy chief is strengthened; he will become not only automatically vice-president of the European Commission but at the same time the post of European Commissioner for External Affairs has been cancelled.
Another mayor subject in Lisbon was the distribution of the seats in the European Parliament. The Italian Prime Minister, Prodi, a former President of the European Commission, demanded to get the same number of seats as the UK, 73. This will happen now under the rules of the new treaty, while the president of the European Parliament would no longer have a vote. Commenting on this ‘creative’ solution Graham Watson, leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) group in the parliament said: ‘To have satisfied the Italians by pretending to take away the vote of the EP President seems to be a case of comedy turning into farce. But if it serves to build the necessary consensus on the new Treaty I can live with it’.
The decision in Lisbon effectively ends a six year long period of trying to internally reform of the EU, with as the lowest point the rejecting of the European Constitution by French and Dutch voters in 2005. ‘I urge all Member States to proceed now with ratification in an honest, open and efficient manner so that we can move on to tackle the more practical and urgent matters on the European policy agenda’, in Graham Watson’s words.
