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After the long journey, the Treaty of Lisbon has reached the goal. With the signature by Czech President the Treaty of Lisbon has now been approved by all EU countries. The Czech instruments of ratification will be transferred to Italy, the country administering them. If this is done in November, the Treaty will enter into force on 1 December and therefore, all the details must now be put into place. The Swedish presidency may call for an EU summit in order to prepare the implementation of the Treaty. An extra meeting of the European Council must therefore be held in November. New Commissioners must be presented to, and approved by the European Parliament. This work also includes taking a decision on new budgetary procedures and new working procedures of the European Council. The Lisbon Treaty will create the legal framework and tools needed to meet Europe's most pressing challenges. By giving the directly-elected Parliament more power, it would make the EU more accountable. With a few exceptions, it would place the European Parliament (EP) on an equal footing as lawmaker with the Council, representing EU Member States, in areas where this has not been the case so far, notably in setting the EU budget (Parliament would enjoy full parity), agriculture policy and justice and home affairs. National parliaments would gain the right to object to a proposal if they felt that a given result could be better attained at national rather than EU level. The Commission President would be selected by EU heads of government on the basis of the European election results and approved by the EP. The appointment of the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs would also be subject to Parliament's consent. Citizens' rights would also be strengthened. For example, the Treaty would make the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights binding upon the EU itself, thus requiring EU institutions to respect citizens' civil, political, economic or social rights. A new right of citizens' initiative would enable groups who can muster one million signatures to call upon the Commission to put forward new policy proposals, thus increasing citizens' participation in EU decision-making. The Treaty also aims to improve the efficiency of the EU's decision-making process by increasing the use of qualified majority voting, replacing unanimity, and thus facilitating agreements in the Council of Ministers. The new European Council President and the High Representative for foreign policy should improve the consistency of EU action. The Lisbon Treaty would give more legislative power to the European Parliament by making Parliament a co-legislator with the Council in a series of new fields. Some of these, currently dealt with only by the Council, would be handled under the co-decision procedure. Others are completely new policy areas for the EU. Some of existing EU policies which would become subject to co-decision: • agriculture and fisheries policies • measures concerning common policy on visas (partly already in co-decision) • asylum (some aspects, including conditions for the reception of applicants) • legal immigration (including conditions of entry and residence) • judicial cooperation in criminal matters, police cooperation, Eurojust and decisions on Europol • minimum rules on criminal sanctions in the areas of serious crimes with cross-border dimensions • monetary policy with regard to measures necessary for the use of the Euro • structural funds There will be some new policy areas to be introduced by the Lisbon Treaty which will be subject to co-decision: • energy (internal market energy is already under co-decision) • services of general economic interest • personal data protection • border checks • immigration: combating human trafficking and promoting integration • European intellectual property rights • public health: measures setting high quality standards (harmonisation excluded) • sport • space policy • implementation of the European research area • tourism The current number of MEPs is 736, as laid down in the Nice Treaty. Under the Lisbon Treaty, the number of MEPs would be 751. If the Lisbon Treaty comes into force, 18 new Members representing 12 different countries would take up their seats in Parliament. The number of MEPs would temporarily rise to 754, because under the Lisbon Treaty Germany would have three fewer MEPs, but these Members would keep their seats until the end of the present legislature. Raising the number of MEPs in the middle of the legislature requires the consent of all Member States by ratification. Until this ratification procedure is completed, the 18 new Members cannot take up their full powers. In a resolution adopted before the June 2009 elections, Parliament therefore suggested taking in the 18 new Members as observers from the moment the Lisbon Treaty has been fully ratified until the protocol temporarily raising the number of MEPs is ratified. Some of the 12 countries elected their "Lisbon MEPs" in the June 2009 European Parliament elections, but in many countries the decision on how to choose these Member(s) will be taken later. According to the current Swedish presidency the Treaty of Lisbon will make the EU more democratic and able to function better. The elected European Parliament and the national parliaments in the Member States will have more say. At the same time, it will become easier to reach decisions in a serious of issues concerning for example transboundary crime, agriculture policy and migration policy, as individual Member States will be less able to block decisions in areas where the EU wants to move forward. The Treaty of Lisbon is quite simply better suited to a Union that has expanded with twelve new Member States within the past five years. pub-6390946380935757 |
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