EU leaders sign Lisbon treaty

Europe’s heads of state gathered in Lisbon Thursday afternoon to sign the reform treaty designed to replace the European constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.

The document was signed in the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos in Lisbon, the site where Portugal marked its entry into the EU in 1985.

European parliament president Hans-Gert Pöttering said that "signing the reform treaty of Lisbon, 50 years after the treaty of Rome, will help the EU to follow a common path".

Portuguese prime minister José Sócrates said: “A more ambitious Europe is the most important contribution we can make today to a better world. It’s only a Europe that is able to take decisions that will be able to achieve results.”

Criticism has dogged negotiations for a European constitution and reform treaty for the last six years, with arguments raging over symbols of the union, such as flags and emblems, the application of the charter of fundamental rights and the change from unanimous decision to qualified majority voting.

Commission president José Manuel Barroso emphasised that the Lisbon treaty is necessary to help Europe meet the challenges of a globalised world, including climate change and migration.

“Now it is time to move on," he said. "Europe has other challenges to meet. Globalisation is the common denominator to all these challenges. The EU must have a decisive capacity to act on the world stage.”

SME union president Christoph Leitl agreed.

“The signing of the EU reform treaty is a big step forward to make Europe more competitive, democratic and fit for the challenges of the future and globalisation.”

Green party co-spokesperson Philippe Lamberts was a little less effusive.

“Although we Greens would have wanted a much more ambitious and courageous treaty than the one that is proposed, it does contain a number of key positive reforms and should be able to make progress in important areas.

"In particular, we welcome the greater powers given both to the European parliament and national parliaments, the accordance of legal personality to the EU and the attempt to better involve citizens in the EU’s decision-making process.”

Hans-Gert Pöttering added: “European politics has been a process over the years. In 1979 the European parliament had zero legislative power. With the reform treaty this increases co-decision to almost 100 per cent.

"This is more democracy and gives us more possibility to defend the beliefs and the rights of the citizens of the EU.”

Meanwhile, UK Conservative MEP Giles Chichester criticised the treaty’s emphasis, saying, “This treaty is all about political symbolism rather than any objective assessment of what Europe needs.”

But Portuguese president José Socrates said: “Europe has finally overcome the impasse which has curtailed its activity over the past few years.

“Our project does not make national identity less important but rather it offers a multilateral context beneficial to the whole and each of the constituent parts.”

The new treaty offers increased co-decision powers to the European parliament, putting it on an equal footing with the council of ministers. With ‘subsidiarity’, national governments have a mechanism by which to monitor the EU and ensure it only acts if necessary.

President Pöttering stood up for the principles enshrined by the open negotiations that framed the original constitution and led to the reform treaty being signed.

“The substance of the constitutional treaty was worth defending. The reform treaty is equally worth defending by making the charter of fundamental rights legally binding.

The next hurdle to face for the much-maligned reform treaty is the process of ratification in each member state. The European policy centre has released a ratification table charting the likely progress of the new treaty, singling out Ireland for particular concern.

“There is an ongoing debate in Dublin over whether to put this issue to a vote mid-way through the process once some countries have ratified and momentum is building,” says Sara Hagemann, policy analyst at EPC, “Or to wait until the end and aim to be the last country to ratify in December 2008, in order to put extra pressure on the voters.

"The Irish government is warning that a ‘Yes’ vote in this traditionally pro-European country cannot be taken for granted.”

Joseph Daul, EPP president, said: “From January 2009 we want to be able to implement our new method of operation. It is important, because the provisions of the Lisbon treaty will have an effect on the next European elections and therefore on the nomination of the president of the commission.”

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