The implementation of the Lisbon Treaty on 1 December 2009 will breathe a new life into the European Union. The birth pangs were many and they were severe, but the reform treaty is finally about to see the light of day. As one observer in Brussels has rightly put it, “Today we can no longer justify our inertia, lack of vision and apathy which the European Union has been suspected of for quite some time.”
We have finally selected our new leaders. The most prominent posts created under the Treaty of Lisbon are those of the President of the European Council and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Some might ask, of course, “Haven’t such positions existed before?” Well, they have, and may have even had similar names, but they meant something completely different.
The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy – the position offered to the British Baroness Catherine Ashton – is tasked with consolidating the overall EU foreign policy on an institutional basis and serves as the Vice-President of the European Commission. Granted that the EU foreign policy is about to acquire a legal personality, we are talking about totally new areas of responsibility, a whole new mechanism of managing foreign relations and, above all, a new imperative to consolidate the diverse EU foreign policies, which so far has often been an uphill struggle. Many hope that the appointment of the new foreign policy chief reporting both to the Council and the Commission will ensure that the EU foreign policy is better planned and more consistent. This sentiment is shared by most members of the European Parliament, who are looking forward to the successful cooperation with the Vice-President of the Commission. I am among those MEPs who strongly believe that this will be the case; I am positive that we are going to see more jointly conceived and executed foreign policy projects in the near future.
The second top job envisaged by the Lisbon Treaty – that of the President of the Council and a de facto President of Europe – is a post so far occupied by Prime Ministers during their countries’ rotating presidencies. Over the next two and a half years, however, all EU affairs, including the activities undertaken by the current presidencies, will be coordinated and planned by a single politician, the Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy. Whether or not this experiment proves to be a success and whether the EU President manages to reconcile his interests with those of the EU heads of state – remains to be seen. There is a common consensus, though, that the new post should entail a better coordination of the actions undertaken by particular member states and the diverse EU institutions.
Across the EU, there has been much criticism in the press about the appointment to the key positions of rather dull and politically insignificant figures. And not without reason, for among the original candidates were some stronger, more recognisable and more dynamic personalities. The rationale behind the final choice was very simple, though. The largest European countries, which played a major part in nominating Van Rompuy and Ashton, apparently wished to see practical implications of the policies managed by “outsiders”. To my mind, this can be interpreted as both a sign of EU’s cautiousness and an attempt to gauge how its new strategy is going to play out. Among all these uncertainties, one thing is clear, however: from 1st December onwards the European affairs will move ahead at full speed. The countdown to the project “New Europe” has already begun.
