Reader-friendly Treaty of Lisbon

Finally the cause for consolidated versions of the EU Reform Treaty or Treaty of Lisbon seems to make headway.

At a joint meeting for members of 27 EU national parliaments and of the European Parliament, Jo Leinen, chairman of the EP Constitutional Affairs Committee, stressed the need for a proper communication policy to explain the content and the objectives of the reform to the public. He called for a reader-friendly version of the over-complex Reform Treaty.

Jean-Luc Dehaene said that it is necessary that citizens are fully involved regardless of the ratification procedure chosen by each Member State.

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The French National Assembly has published a 281 page report by its Foreign Affairs Committee, with consolidated versions on the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union. This consolidated Treaty in French is based on the 18 October 2007 version; thus, some linguistic modifications may have been made in the final treaty texts which have been posted on the IGC 2007 web site of the Council.

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In accordance with the principle of equality of the citizens of the Union (Treaty of Lisbon, Article 8) more readable, user-friendly consolidated versions of the Treaty of Lisbon should be published instantly by one of the institutions of the European Union in all the official languages of the EU and distributed widely in collaboration with the Member States.

The same procedure should be applied to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, including (the languages of) the countries whose leaders have chosen to opt out. Citizens should be treated equally by the EU institutions.


Ralf Grahn


Sources:

National parliaments’ role in EU affairs improved by new Treaty; European Parliament News, 4 December 2007; http://www.europalr.europa.eu

Assemblée nationale : Rapport d’information sur les modifications apportées par le traité de Lisbonne au traité sur l’Union européenne et au traité instituant la Communauté européenne, par M. Axel Poniatowski ; No 439, 28 novembre 2007 ;
http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/13/pdf/rap-info/i0439.pdf