What is the Lisbon Treaty?  Why is there a Lisbon Treaty?  What benefits will it bring to the people of Scotland, the European Parliament and the EU overall?

These are just many of the questions that I have been asked recently by constituents. 

There have been a lot of scare stories about the Lisbon Treaty and many red herrings have been thrown around.  This has led to many people being ill-informed about the importance of the Treaty and how it will improve the EU.  Every major Treaty has brought benefits for European citizens and the Treaty of Lisbon in no different.  It will provide the EU with the legal framework and tools necessary to tackle present and future challenges.

I was invited to give a presentation on the Lisbon Treaty at the SERN Briefing, The Tun, Edinburgh on 14 May 2010.  I jumped at the chance to provide a ‘Light on Lisbon’ presentation.

Please see below for a copy of my speech.

The Treaty at a Glance

As you all know, the Treaty was signed in Lisbon on 13 December 2007 and, after ratification by all the contracting member states, it came into force on the 1^st of December of last year.

The treaty provides the EU with modern institutions and optimised working methods to tackle today’s challenges both efficiently and effectively. There are three main tangible changes brought about by the treaty.

The first main change is that the treaty restructures and amends the founding treaties of the Union, namely the Treaty on European Union and the EC Treaty. The EC Treaty itself has been renamed ‘the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,’ and 36 protocols have been appended to the treaties, all of which are legally binding.

The second change is that the treaty alters the institutional architecture of the Union, merging the three pillar structure established in Maastricht in 1992, and eliminating the term ‘European Community.’ Examples of institutional changes are that the European Council becomes a formal institution with decision-making powers and a full time president with a two and a half year term.  The number of MEPs per member state in the Parliament will alter in the future, and the number of members of the European Commission will be reduced.

The third change is very significant. The Treaty alters the rules on decision-making in the Union. The previous rules were designed for a Union of 15 Member States. Now with a Union of 27 Member States, the treaty brings revised rules that make the decision procedures more swift, more transparent and more democratic. An example of a new rule is that qualified majority voting becomes the norm within the Council up until 2014 at the earliest, and thereafter double majority voting will be used.

Changes for the European Parliament

As an active member of the European Parliament, I’d like to give you a short overview of the changes that the Lisbon Treaty brings to the Parliament in particular before discussing the effects for the EU and its citizens as a whole.

First of all, the Treaty will increase the Parliament’s powers in lawmaking by increasing the number of areas within which it will make decisions jointly with the Council of Ministers. Previously, the Parliament was a powerful legislator in 35 fields of competency, which included subjects such as industry, transport and consumer protection. Under the Lisbon treaty however, roughly 40 new fields are brought within the co-decision procedure, or as it is now known, ‘Ordinary Legislative Procedure,’ meaning that the Parliament has effectively become a legislative power equal to the Council of Ministers.  These new fields include agriculture, energy, security, immigration, justice and home affairs, and health.

The second big change for the Parliament is that the treaty will give it more extensive powers over the Budget of the European Union. In the past, the Parliament did not have the final say on so-called “compulsory expenditure”, which made up around 45% of the EU budget, and included things such as spending on agriculture and international agreements. From now on, the Parliament and the Council of Ministers will have joint decision-making powers over all aspects of the EU Budget.

The third main change for the Parliament is that the treaty gives it a greater say on who runs the EU by giving it more powers in appointing the European Commission. Following nomination of candidates by the European Council, the Parliament will elect the President of the Commission. Parliament’s consent must also be obtained in the appointment of the new position of High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, a role currently occupied by Cathy Ashton. Parliament will also retain its power to approve or reject the appointment of the full Commission.

Overall, extending powers for the directly-elected European Parliament is an important step in ensuring that the EU is equipped to deal with today’s challenges in an effective and democratic manner.

The Implications of the Treaty for the EU as a whole and its citizens

Now, I’d like to discuss the implications of the treaty for the EU as a whole and its citizens. There are four major implications of the Lisbon Treaty. The first one is that the treaty will create a more democratic and transparent Europe. The second implication is that it will create a more efficient and effective Europe. It will reinforce the values of the EU and the rights of European citizens, and last of all, it will advance Europe’s role as an actor on the global stage.

I’d now like to take each of these four positive outcomes one at a time and explain to you how I think the treaty will achieve each of these.

A More Democratic and Transparent Europe

I believe that he Lisbon treaty will create a more democratic and transparent Europe. Clearly, this will be achieved in part by the stronger role for the directly-elected European Parliament, as I’ve just described.

As well as this, what is very important about the Lisbon treaty is that it increases the involvement of National Parliaments in the work of the EU. National Parliaments now form part of the democratic fabric of the Union, and in this regard, the greatest change lies in the new power of national parliaments to enforce the principle of subsidiarity. From now on, under the National Parliaments Protocol, draft legislative acts are be forwarded to national parliaments and cannot be adopted for eight weeks. Under the new Subsidiarity Protocol, national parliaments can send a reasoned opinion to the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament stating why they consider that the draft Act does not respect the subsidiarity principle. If a reasoned opinion is submitted by at least a third of national parliaments, the relevant European institution has to review the draft legislation and subsequently maintain, amend or withdraw the draft. Reasons must be given for this decision. If a simple majority of national parliaments submit reasoned opinions, the legislative proposal must be reviewed   or a clear justification must be given as to why the legislation does not breach the subsidiarity principle. If, after review, the Commission decides to maintain the proposal, the Council or the Parliament have the power to block the proposal before concluding the first reading if they believe that it is not compatible with the subsidiarity principle.

The next thing to point out is that transparency is ensured by provisions establishing a clearer distribution of powers and categorisation of competencies between the Union and the Member States, making it easier to understand ‘who does what.’ The Union enjoys competencies conferred on it by Member States as laid out in the Lisbon Treaty, whilst all other competencies continue to be within the realm of the State. In a further step towards greater transparency, a new provision means that Council of Ministers deliberations on legislative matters are public, meaning that citizens can see which decisions are taken by which ministers.

The Treaty introduces the European Citizens’ Initiative, whereby one million citizens from EU member states may invite the Commission to submit a proposal on matters where they consider that a legal act of the EU is required to implement the Treaties. Whilst the Commission isn’t bound to make a proposal following a Citizens’ Initiative, it must carefully examine all initiatives to consider whether a new policy proposal is appropriate. The exact procedures and conditions required for the Citizens Initiative will be decided in a Regulation, a draft of which was proposed by the Commission on 31 March and is currently being discussed by the European Parliament and the Council. This new tool has the potential to allow EU citizens themselves to contribute to European democracy.

And finally, Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union as amended by Lisbon recognises that Member states may withdraw from the EU, and it sets out a clear process by which this can be done.

A More Efficient and Effective Europe

The next main implication of the treaty is that it creates a more efficient and effective European Union. This will partly be achieved through the institutional innovations contained in the Treaty. From now on, the institutional framework will be more stable and streamlined, for example through the creation of the new position of a full-time President of the European Council, a position currently occupied by Herman van Rompuy, who is charged with the task of chairing and co-ordinating the European Council’s work. Other institutional changes in place to improve efficiency are new arrangements for the future composition of the European Parliament and for a smaller European Commission.

A major challenge addressed by the Lisbon treaty is how to improve the efficiency of decision-making across the institutions given the increasing number of Member States over the past few years. An example is the new double-majority system in the Council of Ministers which will come into force in 2014 at the earliest. A decision under this procedure requires at least 55% of the Member States representing at least 65% of the Union’s population. Not only is this more democratic than the previous system employed since the Nice Treaty, but it also facilitates the establishment of sufficient majorities, meaning positive decisions can be reached more easily than in the past. In addition, instead of the previously required unanimity in several fields of competency, Lisbon extends the qualified majority vote to more fields, which again makes decision-making quicker and easier.

In a key step towards greater effectiveness, the Lisbon Treaty enables the Union to develop its own policies on security and justice. This is important as, since its establishment in 1993 as an area of freedom of goods, services, capital and persons, the EU has not benefited from coordination of the various legal systems of its Member States, and therefore the action that could be taken against international crime networks was limited. Lisbon enhances the efficiency of the decision making process in areas of security and justice by using the qualified majority vote in the Council of Ministers together with the European Parliament’s power of codecision. Decisions will be taken by these procedures on issues such as: external borders and asylum, illegal immigration and human trafficking, and cross border crimes like terrorism and cyber-crime. In addition, the Treaty increases legal cooperation between states via the “mutual recognition” principle, whereby each legal system acknowledges other Member States’ laws as valid and applicable. This applies for both civil and criminal laws. In addition, the Treaty foresees the creation of a European Prosecutor’s Office, which will be competent in searching for and prosecuting criminals. 

So on the whole, we can see that the treaty includes several changes which ensure an increased ability to act efficiently in areas of major priority for today’s Union.

A Europe of Rights and Values

The Treaty of Lisbon creates a Europe of rights and values, and it does this by reinforcing the core values upon which the EU is built and securing fundamental human rights across the Union.

Early on in the Treaty of Lisbon, the values upon which the Union is founded are detailed and reinforced, namely:  “respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.” These values are common to all Member States, guide all of the EU’s work and they must be respected by any state wishing to join the EU. This key statement, as well as more detailed provisions on social justice and discrimination later in the treaty emphasise that the EU is a Union of Values, and these values serve as a reference point for citizens and partners worldwide alike.

A key aspect of the Treaty is that it makes significant advances towards protecting more fully fundamental rights. In this regard, the Treaty paves the way for the accession of the EU to the Council of Europe’s Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The Lisbon Treaty also gives the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union legally binding status. This not only requires the compliance of the EU and its institutions, but also of the Member States in their implementation of EU law. The Charter concerns itself with civil, political, economic and social rights, and its provisions can now be relied upon in European Courts. For the UK and Poland, the Lisbon Treaty contains a protocol which makes clear that the Charter does not create new rights, rather it reaffirms existing rights.

The Treaty preserves and reinforces the EU’s “four freedoms”, of goods, services, capital and persons, reaffirming that the EU is an area of freedom, security and justice without internal borders.

Europe as an Actor on the Global Stage

Last but not least, I believe the final main implication of the Lisbon Treaty is that it promotes the Union’s interests across the world by making it a more visible and prominent actor on the global stage.

One way the Treaty achieves this is by creating the position of High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, who also doubles up as the Vice-President of the Commission. The High Representative ensures the consistency and effectiveness of the EU’s external action and raises the EU’s worldwide profile by being “the face” of the Union. The High Representative is assisted by the newly created European External Action Service, which is made up of officials from the Commission, the Council, and the diplomatic services of Member States.

Next, Article 47 of the Treaty on European Union - as amended by Lisbon - introduces a single legal personality for the EU, meaning it can take action as a single entity. This does not authorise the EU to legislate or act beyond the competencies conferred on it by member States, however, it does enable the EU to conclude international agreements and join international organisations. The Lisbon Treaty sets out detailed procedures on how international agreements can be negotiated and concluded on the EU’s behalf.

The Lisbon Treaty recognises that security and defence both play a central role in the common foreign and security policy of the Union and the treaty represents an significant step towards the development of ‘European Defence.’ Examples are that the Treaty introduces a ‘Mutual Defence Clause,’ obliging Member States to assist another Member State if it is attacked. The new ‘Solidarity Clause’ means that the EU and its Member States must assist a Member State affected by a human or natural catastrophe or by a terrorist attack. In addition, the Treaty confirms the existence of the European Defence Agency with a view to developing an arms policy and to co-ordinating work to equip national armed forces.

Finally, and very importantly, humanitarian aid is given a specific legal basis under the Treaty. Here, the relevant treaty provision emphasises the importance of impartiality, neutrality and non-discrimination and states that European humanitarian aid operations shall be conducted in compliance with the principles of international law. The Treaty also envisages the creation of a European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps in the future.

All these changes will ensure that the EU’s voice is stronger in the world so it can promote Europe’s interests and values globally.

The Lisbon Treaty – Taking Europe into the 21^st Century

Overall, the Lisbon Treaty provides the EU with the legal framework and working methods necessary to meet current and future challenges, as well as to respond to its citizens’ needs. By modernising institutions; promoting human rights and democratic values; and giving Europe a more prominent role on the world stage, the Lisbon Treaty will take the European Union forward into the 21^st Century.