euro|topics - The 27 signed the Treaty of Lisbon

Main focus of Thursday, December 13, 2007

The 27 signed the Treaty of Lisbon

European heads of state signed on Thursday, December 13rd, a new Treaty, replacing the Constitution, in Lisbon. Once it is ratified, this text should facilitate decisions in an expanded EU of 27. Its content has elicited several reservations in the European press.

De Volkskrant - Netherlands

"If you believe the European political elites, the period of stagnation is over today," writes the Dutch daily. "The discussion of the EU's future must again be on the agenda, and preferably, with a positive attitude. ... We can debate, we certainly have the right, but only if we don't put the ratification of the Reform Treaty in danger. ... The EU's democratic deficit can only be resolved if the political elites succeed in formulating and proclaiming 'a definite idea of Europe'. ... Before a dialogue with voters can start, political parties must themselves find an answer to the essential questions related to the direction and final goal of the European Union." (13/12/2007)

Postimees - Estonia

The Estonian daily sees the reform treaty as an opportunity for the EU to get out of the current impasse and move on, but at the same time it remains sceptical. "The EU is no doubt a good thing for Estonia, but certain aspects of the reform treaty will give us a headache. In the long term not all member states will have a representative on the Commission and that violates the principle of equality. We also don't know whether the EU's common foreign policy will be in our interest. And finally there's no guarantee that the reform treaty will enter force in 2009 because it's to be put to referendum in Ireland and perhaps in the UK too." (13/12/2007)

Le Soir - Belgium

Alexandre Defossez, a doctoral student at the European Institute for Legal Studies (IEJE) at the University of Liege, doubts "that the Treaty solves the major problem revealed by the failure of the defunct Constitution. The Union exists in the spirit of its citizens. ... [It's] an unidentified political object, with uniquely economic objectives. As such, it is a project difficult to be enthusiastic with. The symbols of the Union - its flag, its anthem, the quasi-totality of the preamble, the (unfortunate) term 'Constitution' - don't appear in the treaty. The Union has been stripped of its most beautiful finery, presenting citizens only the dreary facade of a sanitised text, made up of a litany of indigestible amendments. [The Union] thus launches an unprecedented version of international cooperation, but one which, at the same time, doesn't have the ability to overcome its divisions through the adoption of proper symbols that its citizens can identify with." (13/12/2007)

The Guardian - United Kingdom

Timothy Garton Ash considers that the Reform Treaty is an accomplishment, "but a noble constitutional document, comparable to that of the United States, it is not. ... In itself, it will do nothing to convince Europe's citizens, or the rest of the world, of what the European Union is good for. But it will help the EU to do things that may convince them. ... It should free us to concentrate on what this union does, rather than what it is, or says it is. In fact, the EU will define what it is by what it does. Will it help to create jobs, strengthen a free-trading world, encourage development, or combat climate change? What can it offer neighbours who will not become members, in the arc of crisis that surrounds us, from Murmansk to Casablanca? ... European leaders should ... contemplate the wider horizon." (13/12/2007)

Corriere della Sera - Italy

Maurizio Ferrera considers that in signing the Lisbon Treaty, "European leaders will adopt a watered-down and reduced version of the European Constitution blocked by France and the Netherlands in 2005. The fruit of patient diplomatic work, the Treaty contains different innovations that will make the EU function more smoothly... . The signatures in Lisbon are only the first step towards the process of ratification of the new Treaty. But this time the governments look to avoid at all costs popular referendums... . Better to avoid the referendums and advance Europe via agreements between the elites, negotiated by governments and ratified by parliaments... . The internal political arenas risk becoming a platform for a neo-populist movement, from the left and the right, against the governments ... , against the technocrats in Brussels, or worse, against politicians pure and simple." (12/12/2007)

» To the complete press review of Thursday, December 13, 2007

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