EU Reform - Lisbon Treaty on Its Way to Ratification

It came faster than expected - yesterday night, the European heads of state agreed on a text amending previous EU treaties after making some last-minute concessions to Poland and Italy. The representatives of Great Britain, the Netherlands and France again emphasized that the new treaty was merely an amendment and not a Constitution. Such a negation is not aimed at reducing the impact of the whole reform efforts. Rather the leader of these three countries try to avoid referenda in their countries that had been futile for past reform efforts within the EU.

Basically, however, the Lisbon Treaty (as the Reform Treaty is now called) is the formerly proposed EU Constitution minus symbolism. In particular, the treaty will streamline decision-making within the EU while boosting democratic control. The Charter of Human Rights will become legally binding for most member states and the representation of the EU in external matters will be harmonized. A more detailed description of the treaty features can be found here [FAZ, in German] and here [previous post].

The heads of state are now scheduled to gather again on December 13/14 to sign the Lisbon Treaty. Yet, this will not be the ending. The realization of the treaty will depend on the ratification by the individual member states - a hurdle that the Lisbon Treaty's predecessor could not pass. As of now, a referendum is only required in Ireland. Great Britain, the Netherlands and France try to avoid referenda. In Poland, we have the inverse situation: a referendum, although unlikely, would probably pass smoothly as the Polish people are quite enthusiastic about the EU whereas on the political level Europe skepticism seems to prevail.

We can only hope that the extensive negotiation procedures will bear fruits and that the member states will now stick to the compromise reached for the sake of the EU's future success.