European Union (EU) leaders meet in Lisbon on Thursday and
Friday to try to agree on the text of a draft treaty after years of
debate over institutional reform of the 27-nation bloc.
At the informal summit, hosted annually by the incumbent EU
president in autumn, national leaders will look at the Reform
Treaty prepared by the intergovernmental conference (IGC) according
to the guidelines set out by the leaders after a marathon meeting
in June.
The treaty will replace the controversial Constitutional Treaty,
which was signed by EU states in 2004 but was permanently frozen
after French and Dutch voters gave it a thumbs-down in 2005.
The new treaty, hammered out by EU legal experts earlier this
month, is expected to make the EU's decision-making mechanism more
efficient yet more democratic, and to accelerate integration in
Europe. The EU's successive enlargements in recent years have made
the body increasingly difficult to run smoothly.
Time to move on
"We need the EU to speak with the single strong voice to deliver
global leadership. We need more efficient and democratic
decision-making to deliver policy results that benefit our
citizens," Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European
Commission, the executive arm of the EU, said Wednesday.
"We need to put this institutional debate behind us. We have
spent six years discussing the institutional architecture. It is
time to move on," he said.
After two years of reviewing the fate of the EU constitution,
and months of intense negotiations among member states since the
beginning of this year, Barroso believes the current draft treaty
"is the best deal that is on offer."
"There are no reasons, no excuses not to solve this issue this
week," he said.
Treaty revised
Unlike the constitution, which was meant to replace all earlier
EU treaties and start afresh, the Reform Treaty is designed to
amend the Treaty on the European Union (the Maastricht Treaty) and
the Treaty Establishing the European Community (the Rome
Treaty).
It also scraps all reference to EU symbols - the flag, the
anthem and the motto, and shies away from any phrase which smacks
of "a European Superstate." Hence the title "constitution," which
is loathed by many skeptical EU citizens, is dropped.
However, the new treaty retains many of the changes the
constitution attempted to introduce. They include:
- a president of the European council who would serve a
two-and-a half-year term. This would replace the current system of
a rolling six-month presidency;
- an EU higher representative for foreign and security policy.
This would combine the jobs of foreign affairs chief Javier Solana
and External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner;
- reducing the size of the European Commission, from 27
commissioners to 18, from 2014;
- introducing double majority rule for Council decisions in
2014: proposed EU legislation requiring a qualified majority needs
to muster the support of 55 percent of member states and of 65
percent of the EU's population. But, in a concession to Poland,
member states will be able to invoke the old system until 2017;
- a redistribution of voting weights between the member states,
phased in between 2014 and 2017;
- new powers for the European commission, European parliament
and European court of justice, in areas such as justice and home
affairs;
- the removal of the national veto in a number of policy
areas.
Put simply, the new treaty is widely seen as having preserved
the main substance of the constitution.
Sticking points
Squabbling over the new treaty never seems to end. Poland,
Britain, Italy and Austria are among those member states which have
their own issues.
Poland, which holds elections on Oct. 21, wants a future EU
voting mechanism that would allow EU decisions to be frozen
temporarily when a minority of member nations disagree.
Poland, which claims that the new treaty would give bigger
member states more leverage than before, said the decision-blocking
mechanism, or the Ioannina clause, should be written into the
treaty. Until now it is written in a declaration which has no legal
standing.
London negotiated complex opt-outs on police and judicial
cooperation and from the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Poland also
chose not to be bound by the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Italy disputes a decision on how EU parliamentary seats should
be distributed. According to the new rules, Rome's seats should be
cut from 78 to 72 in 2009, the biggest drop among member
states.
Austria, which complains about a big influx of German students
in its medical schools, demands certain limits on the number of
foreign students who could be enrolled in its universities.
Fate of treaty unknown
Although there are still points to settle, some EU officials are
optimistic about the prospect of a successful summit.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday that all
the differences among member states are minor and EU leaders will
conclude the meeting within 30 minutes.
But others are more cautious. They say that it is not uncommon
for member states to raise new demands in the eleventh hour and
capsize the boat.
Even if the draft is approved at this meeting, the Reform Treaty
will not be signed right away, said Portugal, which holds the EU
presidency. The informal meeting is just an opportunity for heads
of state to see the results of legal work carried out on the treaty
over the autumn.
Hopefully, it will be signed by member states at the formal
summit in Brussels in December.
After that, the treaty needs to be ratified by each of the 27
member states before it becomes a legally binding document. EU
leaders want the treaty in place ahead of next European Parliament
elections scheduled for 2009.
(Xinhua News Agency October 18, 2007)
