Ariddia
14-12-2007, 00:55
I don't think anyone's posted this yet...
Leaders of the 27 member states of the European Union have signed a landmark treaty to streamline decision-making in the expanded bloc, following the rejection of the EU constitution by French and Dutch voters in 2005.
Leaders of the 27-nation European Union on Thursday signed a landmark treaty to revitalise decision-making after years of wrangling on how much power they are willing to hand over.
"History will remember this day as a day in which new paths of hope were opened toward the European deal," Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates told the ceremony.
[...] Like the rejected constitution, it proposes a European foreign policy supremo and a permanent president to replace the cumbersome six-month rotating presidency system.
It cuts the size of the European Parliament and the number of EU decisions which require unanimous support, hence reducing national vetoes.
However it drops all references to an EU flag or anthem, to assuage eurosceptic fears of another step towards a federal Europe.
It also includes a European charter of fundamental human and legal rights, which Britain and Poland have refused to make binding.
"With the Treaty of Lisbon, Europe finally overcomes the political and institutional impasse that limited its capacity to act during the last few years," Socrates said.
"The European project does not eliminate nor minimise national identities," he insisted.
EU Commission Chief Jose Manuel Barroso said "the enlarged European Union gives us a new economic, political and strategic dimension."
[...] Member states now have one year to ratify the text, if it is to come into force as planned in January 2009.
Many governments, including France and the Netherlands, have said they will not hold national referendums this time.
However opponents who want a national vote have seized on the words of Valery Giscard d'Estaing, France's former president and architecht of the abandoned European constitution.
He has said that legal experts had "taken the original draft constitution, blown it apart into separate elements, and have then attached them, one by one, to existing treaties."
Only Ireland is constitutionally bound to put the issue to a vote, which is expected in May or June. Polls suggest many Irish voters are undecided.
In order to avoid a referendum, the British government was granted key opt-outs on foreign policy, labour rights, the common law and tax and social security systems.
(link (http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/news/world/20071213-EU-lisbon-treaty-signed-european-constitution.html))
According to the French language version of the article (http://www.france24.com/france24Public/fr/nouvelles/monde/20071213-union-europeenne-traite-simplifie-signe-constitution-lisbonne.html), the Treaty re-asserts
*the right to life (opposing the death penalty)
*a ban on reproductive cloning, torture and forced labour
*the right to freedom of thought, freedom of religion and freedom of speech
*the right to free and compulsory education
*respect for private property, and the right to undetake economic ventures (liberté
d'entreprendre)
*no discrimination on the basis of gender, ethnicity, social background, language, religion, belief or political opinion
*the right to go on strike
*the right to social security and "access to housing", within the limits of national legislation (which seems to mean... precisely nothing).
All 27 EU countries will be expected to ratify the Treaty in 2008 with a view to it coming into force in 2009.
How similar will the new treaty be to the draft constitution?
It contains many of the changes the constitution attempted to introduce, for example:
A politician chosen to be president of the European Council for two-and-a-half years, replacing the current system where countries take turns at being president for six months
A new post combining the jobs of the existing foreign affairs supremo, Javier Solana, and the external affairs commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, to give the EU more clout on the world stage
A smaller European Commission, with fewer commissioners than there are member states, from 2014
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, for example in the field of justice and home affairs
Removal of national vetoes in a number of areas
Most European leaders acknowledge that the main substance of the constitution will be preserved.
[...] The UK has secured a written guarantee that the charter cannot be used by the European Court to alter British labour law, or other laws that deal with social rights.
[...] Ireland and the UK currently have an opt-out from European policies concerning asylum, visas and immigration. Under the new treaty they will have the right to opt in or out of any policies in the entire field of justice and home affairs.
(link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6901353.stm))
The actual text of the treaty can be found here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/11_12_07treatya.pdf) (PDF).
Leaders of the 27 member states of the European Union have signed a landmark treaty to streamline decision-making in the expanded bloc, following the rejection of the EU constitution by French and Dutch voters in 2005.
Leaders of the 27-nation European Union on Thursday signed a landmark treaty to revitalise decision-making after years of wrangling on how much power they are willing to hand over.
"History will remember this day as a day in which new paths of hope were opened toward the European deal," Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates told the ceremony.
[...] Like the rejected constitution, it proposes a European foreign policy supremo and a permanent president to replace the cumbersome six-month rotating presidency system.
It cuts the size of the European Parliament and the number of EU decisions which require unanimous support, hence reducing national vetoes.
However it drops all references to an EU flag or anthem, to assuage eurosceptic fears of another step towards a federal Europe.
It also includes a European charter of fundamental human and legal rights, which Britain and Poland have refused to make binding.
"With the Treaty of Lisbon, Europe finally overcomes the political and institutional impasse that limited its capacity to act during the last few years," Socrates said.
"The European project does not eliminate nor minimise national identities," he insisted.
EU Commission Chief Jose Manuel Barroso said "the enlarged European Union gives us a new economic, political and strategic dimension."
[...] Member states now have one year to ratify the text, if it is to come into force as planned in January 2009.
Many governments, including France and the Netherlands, have said they will not hold national referendums this time.
However opponents who want a national vote have seized on the words of Valery Giscard d'Estaing, France's former president and architecht of the abandoned European constitution.
He has said that legal experts had "taken the original draft constitution, blown it apart into separate elements, and have then attached them, one by one, to existing treaties."
Only Ireland is constitutionally bound to put the issue to a vote, which is expected in May or June. Polls suggest many Irish voters are undecided.
In order to avoid a referendum, the British government was granted key opt-outs on foreign policy, labour rights, the common law and tax and social security systems.
(link (http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/news/world/20071213-EU-lisbon-treaty-signed-european-constitution.html))
According to the French language version of the article (http://www.france24.com/france24Public/fr/nouvelles/monde/20071213-union-europeenne-traite-simplifie-signe-constitution-lisbonne.html), the Treaty re-asserts
*the right to life (opposing the death penalty)
*a ban on reproductive cloning, torture and forced labour
*the right to freedom of thought, freedom of religion and freedom of speech
*the right to free and compulsory education
*respect for private property, and the right to undetake economic ventures (liberté
d'entreprendre)
*no discrimination on the basis of gender, ethnicity, social background, language, religion, belief or political opinion
*the right to go on strike
*the right to social security and "access to housing", within the limits of national legislation (which seems to mean... precisely nothing).
All 27 EU countries will be expected to ratify the Treaty in 2008 with a view to it coming into force in 2009.
How similar will the new treaty be to the draft constitution?
It contains many of the changes the constitution attempted to introduce, for example:
A politician chosen to be president of the European Council for two-and-a-half years, replacing the current system where countries take turns at being president for six months
A new post combining the jobs of the existing foreign affairs supremo, Javier Solana, and the external affairs commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, to give the EU more clout on the world stage
A smaller European Commission, with fewer commissioners than there are member states, from 2014
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, for example in the field of justice and home affairs
Removal of national vetoes in a number of areas
Most European leaders acknowledge that the main substance of the constitution will be preserved.
[...] The UK has secured a written guarantee that the charter cannot be used by the European Court to alter British labour law, or other laws that deal with social rights.
[...] Ireland and the UK currently have an opt-out from European policies concerning asylum, visas and immigration. Under the new treaty they will have the right to opt in or out of any policies in the entire field of justice and home affairs.
(link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6901353.stm))
The actual text of the treaty can be found here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/11_12_07treatya.pdf) (PDF).