The new Lisbon Treaty, seen from Lisbon
José M. de Areilza
October 12, 2007
This week I had the chance to spend some days in Lisbon. I was able to talk to some of the insiders that work in the new Lisbon Treaty, about to be born. Main worries were Poland and its many new and old demands (voting system, veto on European Investment Bank decisions, a Polish Advocate General -pity the Kaczyinkis aren’t triplets) and Italy’s heroic fight for one more MEPs (very well paid in this country, nota bene). The UK’ red lines are more or less accepted by everybody, except inside the UK Labour Party, of course. The general impression shared by all was that we will have a new Lisbon Treaty in a few days. So much for this part of the debate. The other part of the debate -serious concerns about the method chosen to rescue the failed Constitution, with great contempt of transparency and a cynical view of democracy- was not taking place in Lisbon. And yet, we should have it.
The content of new Treaty will be very much like the old Constitution, with two important exceptions. It will not be called a Constitution, in order to avoid referenda and public debates. It will also be much harder to read and understand. Some of this obscurity will be deliberate. Some will be the result of new opt outs, conditions and declarations by national governments enjoying this moment of euro-sketpticism and contradicting their own previous stances on the Constitution.
The birth of Lisbon Treaty can be read as a paradox. A lot of its substance will help the Union move forward -in energy, perhapas foreign policy and judicial + police cooperation. Its mere existence will allow leaders to re-focus and stop spending political energies in constitutional issues, after five years! But positive policy developments in the Treaty do not justify the method and the way in which this reform is taking place: a short IGC, its agenda based on a mandate, a fast track negotiation that tries to avoid public debate and citizen’s involvement. Exactly the oppossite of the Laeken Declaration of 2001, that wanted to close the gap bewteen EU institutions and citizens. The “Tocqueville” moment of debating democracy in the European level seems to be over. The EU is back to the old fashioned “legitimacy through results” of the first decades of integration. Well, not so fast. The new process of ratification can still go wrong. Moreover, citizens’ alineation is a tricky issue that demands very good marketing skills.
No Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. | TrackBack URI | bookmark on del.icio.us.
Leave a comment
Advertencia de Protección de Datos:
Los datos personales capturados con ocasión de la utilización del formulario de comentarios (nombre/apodo, dirección de correo electrónico, sitio web y dirección IP), serán incluidos en un fichero del propietario del sitio web y se publicarán (excepto su dirección de correo electrónico y su dirección IP) en esta página con la finalidad de permitir opinar públicamente al lector, así como para en su caso contestar al comentario o consultas que formule. Podrá ejercitar sus derechos de acceso, de rectificación, de cancelación y de oposición en lo referido a dichos datos personales dirigiendo un correo electrónico a la dirección: datos.personales@blogeuropa.eu.
----
Privacy notice:
Please be informed that by using the comments form, your personal data (name/nickname, e-mail address, website and IP address), will be included in a file owned by the website proprietor and published along your comment (except for your e-mail and IP addresses), in order for the reader to publicly comment, as well as -should that be the case-, to respond to any comment or query that readers may have made. You will be able to exercise your rights to access, rectify, cancel and oppose such personal data by sending an e-mail to the following address: datos.personales@blogeuropa.eu.