Colm Burke MEP - Key Features of the Reform Treaty

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5th June 2009 Vote COLM BURKE NO.1

29th June 2009 New Parliament reassembles

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Key Features of the Reform Treaty

Here is a link to the official web site of the Lisbon Reform Treaty - http://www.lisbon-treaty.org

Summary

The Reform Treaty consists of a series of amendments to existing EU Treaties. The main features of the Treaty are:

A new voting system in the Council of Ministers to make decision-making more efficient;
A greater role for national Parliaments in the Union’s activities;
A full-time President of the European Council to coordinate and chair EU summit meetings;
A High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy who will bring greater coherence to the Union’s approach to foreign policy; and
The Charter of Fundamental Rights is given legally-binding status.

In these negotiations, Ireland succeeded in achieving our key priorities including:

Maintaining unanimous decision-making on tax matters;
Ensuring balance in the Union’s institutions and equality with regard to membership in the Commission; and
Protecting Ireland’s traditional policy of military neutrality.

Introduction

The Reform Treaty differs from the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (the European Constitution) in two ways.

First, it will not contain the symbolism associated with a Constitution. References to the EU’s flag and anthem are dropped, as is the title, Constitution.
Second, while the Constitutional Treaty sought to put the main EU Treaties into a single consolidated document, the Reform Treaty will amend the existing Treaty on European Union (the Maastricht Treaty) and the Treaty establishing the European Community.

The Reform Treaty will incorporate the greater part of the changes proposed in the Constitutional Treaty, which was agreed during Ireland’s EU Presidency in 2004.

The Charter on Fundamental Rights will be separate from the main body of the revised Treaty, but will be given legally binding (treaty) status. The Reform Treaty will also allow the Union to accede to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR).

Institutional provisions

The Reform Treaty introduces a range of innovations in the Union’s institutions, most of which are carried forward largely unchanged from the draft Constitutional Treaty.

There will be a new full-time President of the European Council (elected for a renewable term of two-and-a-half years) whose role will be to improve the coherence of the Union’s action and to coordinate the work of the European Council;
In the future, the Presidency of the Council of Ministers will be provided by a team of three Member States working together over an 18 month period, thus increasing the coherence and efficiency of the Presidency. One of the three Member States in each team will chair all Council configurations, except Foreign Affairs, for a 6 month period with the support of the rest of the team. (Ireland, Greece and Lithuania and will take on team Presidency responsibilities in 2013).
New voting arrangements have been agreed. Under the Reform Treaty, a double majority voting will be used in the Council of Ministers whereby a qualified majority (QMV) will require 55% of the Member States and 65% of the Union’s population. For matters where the Council is acting other than on a proposal from the European Commission, the support of 72% of member States representing 65% of the Union’s population will be required.
The size of the EU Commission is to be reduced from 2014. This decision stems from concerns about the effectiveness of an excessively large Commission. Membership of the Commission will be capped at a level equal to two-thirds of the number of Member States. The right to nominate a Commissioner will rotate on a strictly equal basis between all Member States regardless of their size and population. The European Council may take a unanimous decision to alter the size for the Commission, but any such decision must respect the requirement for strictly equal rotation between Member States.
A new post of High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (rather than a Union Minister for Foreign Affairs as in the Constitutional Treaty) will be created. The High Representative will draw together the current functions of the Council’s High Representative for Common and Foreign Security Policy and the Commissioner for External Relations, and will chair the External Relations Council and be Vice-President of the Commission. The High Representative will be supported by a European External Action Service. These arrangements will not replace national Ministers and foreign services, but are designed to enhance the coordination of EU activity in relation to third countries and generally improve the EU’s ‘visibility’ in external relations.
Membership of the European Parliament has been capped at 751. The Treaty raises the minimum number of members to be returned by any Member State to 6 so as to ensure that all countries are effectively represented. No Member State can return more than 96 MEPs. As envisaged under the Nice Treaty, Ireland will have 12 MEPs. The Parliament’s role has been enhanced, for example in relation to the EU budget and through the extension of areas to which co-decision with the Council of Ministers will apply;

Role of National Parliaments

The Reform Treaty provides for a strengthened role for national parliaments. The Commission is obliged to give them advanced notice of legislative proposals. Each national parliament is given two votes (in Ireland, the Dáil and the Seanad will each have one vote). In a Union of 27 Member States there are thus 54 votes allocated to national parliaments. National parliaments (or houses of national parliaments) can vote to issue a ‘reasoned opinion’ on whether or not a Commission proposal respects the principle of subsidiarity (i.e. is the policy area concerned a suitable subject for EU legislation?) If at least 18 such votes are issued, the Commission’s draft must be reviewed. In the case of proposals in the areas of judicial co-operation in criminal matters and police co-operation, the threshold is 13. This so-called ‘yellow card’ system is a major new development.
The Reform Treaty provides for a further control mechanism in that, if a Commission proposal for certain EU legislation is contested by more than 27 votes, the Commission must, if it wishes to retain the proposal, justify its decision in a reasoned opinion and such a proposal can be blocked by the Council of Ministers or by the European Parliament.

National Parliaments and Freedom, Justice and Security

National parliaments are, along with the European Parliament, to be kept informed of evaluations of the Member States’ implementation of Union policies in the Justice and Home Affairs area, in particular to facilitate full application of the principle of mutual recognition. They are also to be kept informed of the work of a standing committee established to promote and strengthen co-operation on internal security. National parliaments are also to be involved in the evaluation of the activities of Eurojust and Europol.

Charter of Fundamental Rights

A new Treaty article will explicitly state that the Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.

The Reform Treaty will also confer legally binding, treaty status on the Charter of Fundamental Rights. This marks a significant development in this area as the Charter was only a political declaration when it was initially agreed in 2000.

The aim of the Charter is to consolidate existing fundamental rights and make them more visible. The Charter provides clarity on the Union’s application of fundamental rights. The rights listed in the Charter are derived from existing international conventions, from the Union’s own law, or from the common constitutional traditions of the Member States.

The Charter consists of fifty-four articles, divided into seven sections. The rights covered are diverse and include the right to life, the prohibition of torture, respect for private and family life, the right to an effective remedy and to a fair trial, and also citizens rights such as the right to vote and stand as a candidate at elections to the European Parliament. The Treaty makes it clear that the Charter applies to the Union's institutions and to Member States in their implementation of EU law.

Justice and Home Affairs

In recent times, the EU has been devoting increasing attention to issues concerning freedom, security and justice, which have been included in the EU Treaties since the Maastricht Treaty was agreed in 1992. The 2004 draft Constitutional Treaty included new provisions on matters concerning Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) and these have been carried forward, mostly unchanged, into the Reform Treaty. Majority voting will become the norm in this area, but unanimity is retained for some matters, such as family law.

In the area of judicial cooperation in criminal matters, there will be an ‘emergency brake’. This will allow a Member State to have a proposal referred to the European Council if it considers that it would affect fundamental aspects of its legal system. In cases where it is not possible to reach unanimous agreement at the European Council, a group of not less than one third of Member States may, after four months have elapsed, proceed to implement the measure among themselves. It would not, of course, be binding on the other Member States.

At the June 2007 European Council, it was agreed that Ireland, on account of the particular character of our legal system, could avail of a special arrangement with regard to judicial cooperation in criminal matters and police cooperation. This will allow Ireland to participate in future measures in these areas, but it cannot be obliged to do so.

The Government has made a Declaration stating our intention to participate in measures on criminal matters and, especially, police cooperation to the maximum extent possible. These arrangements applicable to Ireland in the JHA area are to be reviewed by the Government within three years of the Treaty’s entry into force.

The Reform Treaty gives the European Court of Justice (ECJ) greater jurisdiction in relation to the Justice and Home Affairs area. However, the current arrangements will apply to existing measures on judicial cooperation in criminal matters and police cooperation for five years.

Competences

The Reform Treaty provides for little overall change in the Union’s competences in policy areas. The balance of responsibility between the Union and the Member States remains more or less as it currently is in most areas.

The Treaty sets out some basic principles, relating to the relationship between the Union and Member States, including

conferral – the Union only has those powers explicitly conferred on it. All other powers remain with the Member States;
subsidiarity – the Union shall only act if and only insofar as the objective in question cannot be sufficiently achieved at Member State level; and
proportionality – the Union shall only act to the extent necessary to achieve the objective in question.

The Union is conferred with a single legal personality. This does away with the rather confusing distinction between the European Union and the European Community which exists at present.

For the first time, competences in different policy areas are grouped by category:

those in which the Union has exclusive competence – for example competition rules for the internal market;
those in which competence is shared with the Member States – for example, agriculture, environment, consumer protection, limited aspects of public health; and
areas where the competence lies with the Member States, but the Union has a supporting role – for example most health matters and education.

Union Policies

The use of majority voting and co-decision has been extended in some areas. However, in taxation and defence, which are areas of particular sensitivity for Ireland, unanimity has been retained.

A small number of innovations are introduced in policy areas – for example, the Union is given the competence to act against serious cross-border threats to health.

There are also new areas of competence for the Union including tourism, energy; civil protection, humanitarian assistance; intellectual property rights; space policy (added to the provisions on research and technological development); sport (included in the provisions on education, youth and vocational training); and administrative cooperation.

Of these, tourism, energy and civil protection were previously mentioned as being among the Union’s tasks, although no individual legal bases were provided. The Union also already acts in the humanitarian assistance and intellectual property areas, but the necessary powers have been deemed implicit in its objectives. A reference to climate change has been added (on the proposal of Ireland at the June 2007 European Council) as has a Treaty article on solidarity in the field of energy.

Social Europe and ‘Services of general interest’

When the Constitutional Treaty was being elaborated, there was considerable discussion about the need to recognise the social dimension of the Union. The inclusion of a social article in the 2004 draft Treaty was widely welcomed. This provision has been carried over into the Reform Treaty which requires the Union to take into account the promotion of a high level of employment, the guarantee of adequate social protection, the fight against social exclusion, and a high level of education, training and protection of human health.

The Reform Treaty also recognises the importance of ‘services of general economic interest’ which are generally provided by public sector bodies. The Treaty acknowledges the wide discretion available to national regional and local authorities in providing such services to the public. The Union and the Member States are required to ensure that such services operate on the basis of principles and conditions, in particular economic and financial, which enable them to fulfil their purposes.

A Protocol on non-economic services asserts, inter alia, that ‘the provisions of the Treaties do not affect in any way the competence of Member States to provide non-economic services of general interest’.

Enhanced Cooperation

The Reform Treaty carries forward, and simplifies somewhat, the provisions for ‘enhanced cooperation’ or flexibility first introduced by the Treaty of Amsterdam. These provisions essentially lay down the conditions under which a group of Member States can be permitted to proceed with a given initiative.

The Reform Treaty continues to make clear that ‘enhanced cooperation’ must aim to further the objectives of the Union, protect its interests and reinforce the integration process. It must also comply with Union law.

Provisions permitting enhanced cooperation were included in earlier Treaties, but have not been utilised.

Security and Defence Cooperation

Existing provisions on security and defence are amended slightly but without changing their essential features.

It is intended to develop further the Union’s existing capacity, in the context of its overall foreign policy goals, to act in support of international peace and security – e.g. in peace-keeping, conflict prevention, humanitarian and rescue tasks and crisis management.

Decisions in this area will continue to be taken by unanimity, and the deployment of troops by any Member State for a particular mission will remain for sovereign decision by that state.

The need to respect the different traditions in this area of Member States - a formulation originally proposed by Ireland - is, as in previous Treaties, made explicit. Ireland will remain constitutionally debarred from participation in an EU common defence, should that ever be agreed.

Ireland will retain its right to decide whether or how to assist another Member State in the event of armed attack.

The Reform Treaty also includes a new ‘solidarity’ arrangement under which Member States shall assist another Member State which suffers a natural or man-made disaster or terrorist attack. Each Member State will decide for itself how to respond to a request for assistance.

International Trade

The Reform Treaty will simplify arrangements for the negotiation and conclusion of international trade agreements. However, it is made clear that these cannot affect the distribution of competence between Union and Member States.

Unanimity will still be required where trade agreements risk seriously disturbing the national organisation of education, health and social services and prejudicing the responsibility of Member States to deliver them. This was an important protection sought and achieved by Ireland and a number of like-minded Member States.

Europe’s Christian Heritage and role of the Churches

During the negotiations culminating in the Constitutional Treaty, there was pressure for the inclusion of a reference to God or to Europe’s Christian heritage in the Treaty. This question attracted a considerable degree of public interest. Ireland could have supported such a reference, but it did not prove possible to find agreed wording.

However, a new article in the Reform Treaty recognises the specific contribution of the churches and, for the first time, provides for an open, transparent and regular dialogue with them and with non-confessional organisations. This has been widely welcomed by the churches and faith organisations as well as by non-confessional organisations.

Enlargement

The Reform Treaty amends the earlier provisions with regard to future enlargement of the Union (e.g. by the addition of a reference to the Union’s values). The European Parliament and national Parliaments are to be notified of future applications for membership of the Union. The Commission is to be consulted and ‘the conditions of eligibility agreed upon by the European Council shall be taken into account’. The political nature of future decisions on membership of the Union is maintained.