Only the first day conclusions were posted on the Consilium front page, but the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council was a two day meeting. For those who may have missed the conclusions by the justice ministers and ministers of the interior of the EU member states reflecting both days of the meeting, here they are:
3071st Council meeting Justice and Home Affairs; Brussels, 24 and 25 February 2011 (Council document 7012/11; 20 pages)
In the shadow of events in Northern Africa, especially the barbaric repression in Libya, and pressures from asylum seekers and unauthorised migrants in the Southern member states of the European Union, including a future readmission agreement with Turkey, some important, but less mediatic issues were on the agenda.
These other matters included the Internal Security Strategy (ISS) of the EU, attacks against information systems, jurisdiction in civil and commercial matters (Brussels I), the right to information in criminal proceedings, the migration of the EJN-network to the European e-Justice portal, remembering the crimes committed by totalitarian regimes in Europe, collective redress and the enforcement of court decisions in third countries concerning custody.
In the margins of the Council meeting, the Mixed Committee with Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland discussed a number of issues related to the Schengen borders: the Schengen Information System II (SIS II), the Visa Information System (VIS), the 2011 work programme of the European border agency Frontex, the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area, the Visa liberalisation process for the Western Balkans, visa waiver reciprocity and Canada's unilateral visa requirements for Czech nationals, and Liechtenstein's Schengen accession procedure.
Further, the Council concluded two visa liberalisation agreements with Brazil, adopted conclusions regarding the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, adopted conclusions about personal data protection in the EU, took note of a report about combating drug traficking from West Africa, adopted a decision to create a Subcommittee on Political Dialogue, Security and Human Rights with Algeria, decided to renegotiate a monetary agreement with Monaco, and decided to sign a fisheries agreement with São Tomé and Príncipe.
Interior goes international
A hefty agenda; just naming the issues, I almost ran out of breath.
It was also a wide-ranging agenda. As we saw, the issues ranged from Libya to Brazil, passing through Algeria, Canada, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, São Tomé, Switzerland, Turkey and the Western Balkans on the way, but they end up as justice and home affairs (in French: Justice et affaires intérieures, JAI) for the European Union and its member states.
Traditionally, justice and home affairs (freedom, security and justice, FSJ) were the essence of domestic politics and policies, but nowadays it is increasingly impossible to escape the need for rules and practices to deal with cross-border and international issues and aspects.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Charlemagne's notebook is one of the ”must read” blogs on European affairs, partly because its roots in the British soil.
P.S. 2: As an overview for those interested, here are the latest entries on my Euroblogs, three unilingual and one trilingual.
Grahnblawg (in Swedish): EU-rådet för allmänna frågor 21 februari 2011: Bedrövlig förhandsinformation
Grahnlaw Suomi Finland (in Swedish): EU-rådet för allmänna frågor: Vad gör Norden?
Grahnlaw: EU General Affairs Council (GAC) communication: Wrong, stupid and a missed opportunity
Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: EU cohesion policy conclusions reveal lack of transparency
Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish): Mitä EU:n alue- ja rakennepolitiikasta puuttuu Suomessa?
Grahnlaw Suomi Finland (in Finnish): Yhteisvastuu Euroopan unionissa: Kysyntää riittää
If you share my interest in the European economy, EU business, politics or law, we could get acquainted through Twitter @RalfGrahn or Facebook.
Showing posts with label international. Show all posts
Showing posts with label international. Show all posts
Saturday, 26 February 2011
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Herman Van Rompuy: ”The Internal Market is the EU's biggest asset”
In his closing speech at the Annual Brussels Think Tank Meeting ”Europe 3.0: Building a Viable Union” 25 January 2011, the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy @euHvR on Twitter, spoke at length about the economic challenges, particularly with regard to the eurozone. His assessment of challenges, difficulties, achievement and reasonable expectations are well worth reading (page 1-4), as are his remarks about the EU on the international scene (page 4-5). However, I am going to quote Van Rompuy on the internal market, which he called the biggest asset of the European Union (page 4):
On the European Council website there is a short note on the items to be discussed at the next meeting, 4 February 2011 in Brussels.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Wherever there are troubles in the eurozone, you can expect A Fistful of Euros to be there with facts and opinion, as in the case of Ireland. One of the must read Euroblogs.
P.S. 2: You can follow me on Facebook and on Twitter @RalfGrahn, in addition to my blogs: Grahnlaw (in English), Grahnblawg (in Swedish) and Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish), as well as the trilingual Grahnlaw Suomi Finland.
I have spoken at length about the Euro, but let us not forget the EU’s other great achievement: the Internal Market. Safeguarding and developing it may be less spectacular, but it is an indispensable day to day work.
The Internal Market is the EU’s biggest asset. Firstly, it is a major source of growth and job creation. That’s why next week the European Council will discuss Innovation and the Energy Market. We will also ask the Commission to set clear priorities amongst the measures proposed in the, rightly ambitious, Single Market Act. Secondly, the Internal Market is the EU’s main leverage towards the outside world. Last year, it helped us to stimulate Russia on its path of modernisation. In the first semester of 2011, we will probably conclude an impressive trade deal with India, as we did some months ago with South Korea. Thirdly, the internal market ties our economies and societies closer together almost every day. This is no accident. It was the brilliant intuition of the European founders, like Jean Monnet. (As he famously said: “L’Europe ne se fera pas d’un coup, ni dans une construction d’ensemble, elle se fera par des réalisations concrètes créant d’abord une solidarité de fait.”)
In that sense, the Internal Market does exactly what the title of today’s event asks for: it makes the Union more viable almost every week. For instance, on 21 December 2010 – four days after the last European Council decided in the limelight on the text of a limited Treaty change to safeguard the Eurozone –, the Council and the European Parliament agreed on three dossiers: patients’ rights, CO2 emissions from light vehicles and falsified medicines.
None of these decisions was glamorous or médiatique. Nor are the roots of a great oak tree… Yet they are fundamental for the strength of the whole.
On the European Council website there is a short note on the items to be discussed at the next meeting, 4 February 2011 in Brussels.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Wherever there are troubles in the eurozone, you can expect A Fistful of Euros to be there with facts and opinion, as in the case of Ireland. One of the must read Euroblogs.
P.S. 2: You can follow me on Facebook and on Twitter @RalfGrahn, in addition to my blogs: Grahnlaw (in English), Grahnblawg (in Swedish) and Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish), as well as the trilingual Grahnlaw Suomi Finland.
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Domestic legislation as an embarrassment for the EU (Hungarian media law)
Politically, already serious discussion about the commencement of proceedings is an embarrassment for a wayward government, despite the slender risk of condemnation, I said in my comment regarding the founding values of the European Union in Article 2 TEU and the possible sanctions for serious breaches foreseen in Article 7 TEU: Are EU founding values effective? (Hungarian media law)(11 January 2011).
Governments in the European Union (and beyond) want to be seen as respectable, even when their actions are not. The Hungarian Fidesz government of Viktor Orban moved from angry denial to more conciliatory language in order to defuse the problem, but the embarrassment must be felt by their political friends, such as Wilfried Martens, the president of the European People's Party, who endorsed the Hungarian media law, and EPP group leader Joseph Daul, who belittled and procrastinated instead of taking a principled stand for the rights of EU citizens. .
I have no special desire to see the EPP leadership with egg on its face, but the freedoms and rights of EU citizens are more important to me than misplaced consideration for blatant political misjudgments.
In summary, even when national political leaders think that they can act with impunity domestically, they can cause serious political damage to their country and their ”friends” at the European level.
International repercussions
The potential damage is not limited to intra-European affairs. Internationally the European Union portrays itself as the champion of the universal values of human rights. The foreign, security, defence and trade policy (external action) of the European Union is not based on interests alone, but on acting in accordance with and promoting the founding values of the EU.
This is (or should be) more than wishful thinking, since Title V of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), General provisions on the Union's external action and specific provisions on the foreign and security policy, opens by stating the value based character of all EU action on the world stage, in Article 21(1) TEU:
Evidently, if the European Union, even by individual member states, slips at home, it loses credibility abroad. In other words, a domestic embarrassment becomes a global shame.
Dictators and authoritarian rulers are quick enough to praise their rule(s), if a ”fifth column” inside the EU passes the ammunition.
On the website of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and in the Social Europe Journal, Susi Dennison made the point about double standards and welcomed a debate at European level (7 January 2011):
Member states and Europarties
In the eyes of EU citizens and the wider world, the acts of national governments can seriously undermine the purposes and credibility of the European Union. The member states who ”own” the union and the Europarties who are supposed to contribute to forming European political awareness and to express the will of the citizens of the union have special responsibilities, including robust peer pressure on bad apples.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Thoughtful analysis, reasoned arguments, European perspectives … already as an undergraduate Conor Slowey aka Eurocentric wrote one of star blogs of the Euroblogosphere, The European Citizen. Now a graduate student in Leiden, he is a generous contributor on Facebook and on Twitter as @EuropeanCitizen. Highly recommended.
Governments in the European Union (and beyond) want to be seen as respectable, even when their actions are not. The Hungarian Fidesz government of Viktor Orban moved from angry denial to more conciliatory language in order to defuse the problem, but the embarrassment must be felt by their political friends, such as Wilfried Martens, the president of the European People's Party, who endorsed the Hungarian media law, and EPP group leader Joseph Daul, who belittled and procrastinated instead of taking a principled stand for the rights of EU citizens. .
I have no special desire to see the EPP leadership with egg on its face, but the freedoms and rights of EU citizens are more important to me than misplaced consideration for blatant political misjudgments.
In summary, even when national political leaders think that they can act with impunity domestically, they can cause serious political damage to their country and their ”friends” at the European level.
International repercussions
The potential damage is not limited to intra-European affairs. Internationally the European Union portrays itself as the champion of the universal values of human rights. The foreign, security, defence and trade policy (external action) of the European Union is not based on interests alone, but on acting in accordance with and promoting the founding values of the EU.
This is (or should be) more than wishful thinking, since Title V of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), General provisions on the Union's external action and specific provisions on the foreign and security policy, opens by stating the value based character of all EU action on the world stage, in Article 21(1) TEU:
GENERAL PROVISIONS ON THE UNION’S EXTERNAL ACTION
Article 21 TEU
1. The Union’s action on the international scene shall be guided by the principles which have inspired its own creation, development and enlargement, and which it seeks to advance in the wider world: democracy, the rule of law, the universality and indivisibility of human rights and fundamental freedoms, respect for human dignity, the principles of equality and solidarity, and respect for the principles of the United Nations Charter and international law.
The Union shall seek to develop relations and build partnerships with third countries, and international, regional or global organisations which share the principles referred to in the first subparagraph. It shall promote multilateral solutions to common problems, in particular in the framework of the United Nations.
Evidently, if the European Union, even by individual member states, slips at home, it loses credibility abroad. In other words, a domestic embarrassment becomes a global shame.
Dictators and authoritarian rulers are quick enough to praise their rule(s), if a ”fifth column” inside the EU passes the ammunition.
On the website of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and in the Social Europe Journal, Susi Dennison made the point about double standards and welcomed a debate at European level (7 January 2011):
... it has to be a positive development that a political conversation has finally started about these matters at a European level. A Union that has in its founding treaties respect for democracy, rule of law and human rights cannot credibly turn a blind eye to potential breaches of these principles by constituent states.
Member states and Europarties
In the eyes of EU citizens and the wider world, the acts of national governments can seriously undermine the purposes and credibility of the European Union. The member states who ”own” the union and the Europarties who are supposed to contribute to forming European political awareness and to express the will of the citizens of the union have special responsibilities, including robust peer pressure on bad apples.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Thoughtful analysis, reasoned arguments, European perspectives … already as an undergraduate Conor Slowey aka Eurocentric wrote one of star blogs of the Euroblogosphere, The European Citizen. Now a graduate student in Leiden, he is a generous contributor on Facebook and on Twitter as @EuropeanCitizen. Highly recommended.
Thursday, 23 September 2010
Herman Van Rompuy: Europe’s great challenges and small steps (II)
The first part, Herman Van Rompuy: Europe’s great challenges and small steps (I), offered a summary of the president’s speech in Paris 20 September 2010, as well as a link to the full speech and reactions in online media: Sciences-Po, The New York Times and EurActiv.fr.
We continue with two more reactions and some reports on the discussions in the European Parliament yesterday.
There is now an English version of the French EurActiv report on EurActiv.com: Van Rompuy hails ‘flexibility’ of his job.
Talpa brusseliensis christiana offers a summary of Van Rompuy’s main messages: M. Van Rompuy se veut rassurant: « Le projet européen n’est pas mort ! »
European Parliament
Yesterday, president Van Rompuy discussed economic governance with the presidents of the political groups and reported on the European Council to the European Parliament.
Toute l’Europe offers a good summary of the discussions in the European Parliament.
GroenLinks.nl is sceptic with regard to Van Rompuy’s ability to achieve economic governance: Met Van Rompuy redden we de euro niet.
Valentina Pop, on EUobserver, reports about the expectations or deceptions in the European Parliament regarding economic governance, as well as other questions relating to the European Summit: Van Rompuy defends economic taskforce against critics.
Naturally, president Herman Van Rompuy’s report on the outcome of the European Council meeting 16 September 2010 at the European Parliament remains the primary source on his reasoning.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. The multilingual aggregator for EU related blogs keeps growing. There are now 669 Euroblogs listed on Bloggingportal.eu. You can take a look at the stream of all new posts, or following the entries on the front page, the editors' choices. You can also subscribe to the streams and the newsletters without cost.
Bloggingportal.eu needs a few more voluntary editors to tag posts according to subjects. Why not keep informed by reading about European affairs, improve your language skills and do something useful by joining the team of editors?
We continue with two more reactions and some reports on the discussions in the European Parliament yesterday.
There is now an English version of the French EurActiv report on EurActiv.com: Van Rompuy hails ‘flexibility’ of his job.
Talpa brusseliensis christiana offers a summary of Van Rompuy’s main messages: M. Van Rompuy se veut rassurant: « Le projet européen n’est pas mort ! »
European Parliament
Yesterday, president Van Rompuy discussed economic governance with the presidents of the political groups and reported on the European Council to the European Parliament.
Toute l’Europe offers a good summary of the discussions in the European Parliament.
GroenLinks.nl is sceptic with regard to Van Rompuy’s ability to achieve economic governance: Met Van Rompuy redden we de euro niet.
Valentina Pop, on EUobserver, reports about the expectations or deceptions in the European Parliament regarding economic governance, as well as other questions relating to the European Summit: Van Rompuy defends economic taskforce against critics.
Naturally, president Herman Van Rompuy’s report on the outcome of the European Council meeting 16 September 2010 at the European Parliament remains the primary source on his reasoning.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. The multilingual aggregator for EU related blogs keeps growing. There are now 669 Euroblogs listed on Bloggingportal.eu. You can take a look at the stream of all new posts, or following the entries on the front page, the editors' choices. You can also subscribe to the streams and the newsletters without cost.
Bloggingportal.eu needs a few more voluntary editors to tag posts according to subjects. Why not keep informed by reading about European affairs, improve your language skills and do something useful by joining the team of editors?
Herman Van Rompuy: Europe’s great challenges and small steps (I)
When the fundamental values and rules of the European Union are defiantly rejected by government ministers, irrelevance is seen as the future prospect for an increasingly intergovernmental and impotent EU, or – alternatively – an undemocratic and oppressive EUSSR is described as a straitjacket for the nations in Europe, what does the president of the European Council make of this?
This week, president Herman Van Rompuy made one of his rare appearances outside the immediate institutional framework, when he spoke about the great challenges for Europe, as the guest of the think-tank Nôtre Europe, at the Sciences-Po in Paris.
Europe is a work in progress. Despite exasperating slowness, Europe is tough.
Instead of the renationalisation of European politics Charles Kupchan sees, Van Rompuy offered the perspective of Europeanisation of national politics.
Europe has become a fact of life, daily weaving ties between our economies, our civil societies, between the various interests and values, covering a space of 500 million Europeans.
The resilience was shown, when the defence of the eurozone and the European Union led to unprecedented decisions last spring to establish a package of €750 billion together with the IMF, and later to conduct bank stress tests.
The Task force on economic governance is not going to make a great leap to budgetary union, but several small steps in the right direction. They concern both the prevention of future crises and the ability to handle potential crises in the future.
Monetary union without budgetary union is a structural handicap, but the euro can survive in spite of this.
If the warnings of the European Central Bank had been heeded, we could have evaded the crisis. What we need now, is to improve budget surveillance, but especially apply the rules.
According to Van Rompuy the role of the European Council did not mean that the EU descended into intergovernmentalism, but that the heads of state or government formed the link between decisions at EU and national level. The decisions concerning the “Special Purpose Vehicle” were taken in a coordinated manner at national level.
Europe needs both transferral of power to the EU level and the participation of all levels.
If the economic turtle has advanced painstakingly, the international challenges often require quicker answers. It is not acceptable for 500 million Europeans, who produce 22 per cent of world GDP, to stay marginalised. Globalisation is not only about the economy, but about politics and power. If we want to defend our interests and values, we have to realise this. If we want to promote our interests, our small internal differences pale into insignificance.
Online media
You can, of course, read Van Rompuy’s speech in full, or watch the video. Another option is to broaden the view by studying outside reports and comments online.
On Sciences-Po, École de jounalisme, Daphnée Denis summarises the sppech of a Van Rompuy much livelier and funnier than rumoured: Herman Van Rompuy, le « charismatique Président du Conseil européen » (including video excerpts).
Starting from Van Rompuy’s speech, Matthew Saltmarsh and Stephen Castle discuss the state of play concerning EU economic governance in The New York Times: Europe Debates How to Avoid Another Debt Crisis.
The EurActiv.fr report by Clémentine Forissier and Loup Besmond de Senneville offers a good summary of the main points as well as some additional questions of interest: Van Rompuy, les navires et la tortue.
Ralf Grahn
This week, president Herman Van Rompuy made one of his rare appearances outside the immediate institutional framework, when he spoke about the great challenges for Europe, as the guest of the think-tank Nôtre Europe, at the Sciences-Po in Paris.
Europe is a work in progress. Despite exasperating slowness, Europe is tough.
Instead of the renationalisation of European politics Charles Kupchan sees, Van Rompuy offered the perspective of Europeanisation of national politics.
Europe has become a fact of life, daily weaving ties between our economies, our civil societies, between the various interests and values, covering a space of 500 million Europeans.
The resilience was shown, when the defence of the eurozone and the European Union led to unprecedented decisions last spring to establish a package of €750 billion together with the IMF, and later to conduct bank stress tests.
The Task force on economic governance is not going to make a great leap to budgetary union, but several small steps in the right direction. They concern both the prevention of future crises and the ability to handle potential crises in the future.
Monetary union without budgetary union is a structural handicap, but the euro can survive in spite of this.
If the warnings of the European Central Bank had been heeded, we could have evaded the crisis. What we need now, is to improve budget surveillance, but especially apply the rules.
According to Van Rompuy the role of the European Council did not mean that the EU descended into intergovernmentalism, but that the heads of state or government formed the link between decisions at EU and national level. The decisions concerning the “Special Purpose Vehicle” were taken in a coordinated manner at national level.
Europe needs both transferral of power to the EU level and the participation of all levels.
If the economic turtle has advanced painstakingly, the international challenges often require quicker answers. It is not acceptable for 500 million Europeans, who produce 22 per cent of world GDP, to stay marginalised. Globalisation is not only about the economy, but about politics and power. If we want to defend our interests and values, we have to realise this. If we want to promote our interests, our small internal differences pale into insignificance.
Online media
You can, of course, read Van Rompuy’s speech in full, or watch the video. Another option is to broaden the view by studying outside reports and comments online.
On Sciences-Po, École de jounalisme, Daphnée Denis summarises the sppech of a Van Rompuy much livelier and funnier than rumoured: Herman Van Rompuy, le « charismatique Président du Conseil européen » (including video excerpts).
Starting from Van Rompuy’s speech, Matthew Saltmarsh and Stephen Castle discuss the state of play concerning EU economic governance in The New York Times: Europe Debates How to Avoid Another Debt Crisis.
The EurActiv.fr report by Clémentine Forissier and Loup Besmond de Senneville offers a good summary of the main points as well as some additional questions of interest: Van Rompuy, les navires et la tortue.
Ralf Grahn
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Sarkozy and Berlusconi: Helping or hurting their countries?
One of the questions in the wake of the French “Romagate” affair is how it affects the international standing of France. Regards citoyens republished an article by Christian Lequesne in Le Monde: L’attitude du pouvoir vis-à-vis de l’Europe isole la France au lieu de renforcer son rôle.
Lequesne, who is director of CERI (Centre for International Studies and Research), identifies four different elements in president Nicolas Sarkozy’s intergovernmental view of the European Union. This view is counter-productive, and it leads to isolation.
Thomas Friang and Solène Meissonnier speak about an insolent sovereignty in Le Taurillon, when they predict that the Roma policy of the French government will affect the building of Europe, as well as France’s international standing: Une souveraineté insolente.
The only other major EU member state to give the French government clamorous support is Silvio Berlusconi’s Italy. Therefore it is interesting to see how Ferruccio Pastore deals with Paris and Rome in Affari Internazionali: L’asse Parigi-Roma scuote le fondamenta dell’Ue.
According to Pastore the split at the European Council concerned a fundamental question about EU citizenship: does it belong to the poor. The axis between Paris and Rome looks like a precarious alliance between two leaders in crisis. The opened crack concerns the very foundations of the community project.
Also in Affari Internazionali, Bruno Nascimbene writes about the Roma and EU citizenship: La disputa dei rom e i diritti dei cittadini dell’Ue.
Nascimbene discusses EU citizenship, discrimination, free movement, ‘voluntary’ repatriation and the requirement to decide on a case by case basis.
All in all, it looks like Sarkozy and Berlusconi have harmed their countries much more than they have helped.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. The multilingual aggregator for EU related blogs keeps growing. There are now 669 Euroblogs listed on Bloggingportal.eu. You can take a look at the stream of all new posts, or following the editors' choices on the front page. You can also subscribe to the streams and the newsletters without cost.
Bloggingportal.eu needs a few more voluntary editors to tag posts according to subjects. Why not keep informed by reading about European affairs, improve your language skills and do something useful by joining the team of editors?
Lequesne, who is director of CERI (Centre for International Studies and Research), identifies four different elements in president Nicolas Sarkozy’s intergovernmental view of the European Union. This view is counter-productive, and it leads to isolation.
Thomas Friang and Solène Meissonnier speak about an insolent sovereignty in Le Taurillon, when they predict that the Roma policy of the French government will affect the building of Europe, as well as France’s international standing: Une souveraineté insolente.
The only other major EU member state to give the French government clamorous support is Silvio Berlusconi’s Italy. Therefore it is interesting to see how Ferruccio Pastore deals with Paris and Rome in Affari Internazionali: L’asse Parigi-Roma scuote le fondamenta dell’Ue.
According to Pastore the split at the European Council concerned a fundamental question about EU citizenship: does it belong to the poor. The axis between Paris and Rome looks like a precarious alliance between two leaders in crisis. The opened crack concerns the very foundations of the community project.
Also in Affari Internazionali, Bruno Nascimbene writes about the Roma and EU citizenship: La disputa dei rom e i diritti dei cittadini dell’Ue.
Nascimbene discusses EU citizenship, discrimination, free movement, ‘voluntary’ repatriation and the requirement to decide on a case by case basis.
All in all, it looks like Sarkozy and Berlusconi have harmed their countries much more than they have helped.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. The multilingual aggregator for EU related blogs keeps growing. There are now 669 Euroblogs listed on Bloggingportal.eu. You can take a look at the stream of all new posts, or following the editors' choices on the front page. You can also subscribe to the streams and the newsletters without cost.
Bloggingportal.eu needs a few more voluntary editors to tag posts according to subjects. Why not keep informed by reading about European affairs, improve your language skills and do something useful by joining the team of editors?
Sunday, 1 February 2009
EU Law: International development cooperation
Cooperation with third countries and international organisations is one aspect of he European Community’s (European Union’s) action to promote global development.
***
Current treaty
Article 181 of the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC) provides for cooperation and agreements with third countries. The member states retain their powers to act on the international arena and to conclude international agreements.
Article 181 TEC, as published in the latest consolidated version of the treaties in force, OJEU 29.12.2006 C 321 E/127:
Article 181 TEC
Within their respective spheres of competence, the Community and the Member States shall cooperate with third countries and with the competent international organisations. The arrangements for Community cooperation may be the subject of agreements between the Community and the third parties concerned, which shall be negotiated and concluded in accordance with Article 300.
The previous paragraph shall be without prejudice to Member States' competence to negotiate in international bodies and to conclude international agreements.
***
Original Lisbon Treaty
Article 2, point 164 of the original Lisbon Treaty (ToL) amends and renumbers Article 181 TEC, OJEU 17.12.2007 C 306/94:
164) An Article 188 G shall be inserted, with the wording of Article 181; the second sentence of the first paragraph and the second paragraph shall be deleted.
***
Consolidated Lisbon Treaty
After one more renumbering the undeleted parts appear of what has become Article 211 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), in the consolidated version published OJEU 9.5.2008 C 115/142:
Article 211 TFEU
(ex Article 181 TEC)
Within their respective spheres of competence, the Union and the Member States shall cooperate with third countries and with the competent international organisations.
***
Lisbon Treaty changes
Roughly two thirds of the text is deleted, but it is hard to see anything of value getting lost. In addition, Article 209(2) TFEU already says it.
Even the remaining part of the provision seems to have only an informative (declaratory) value.
Article 211 TFEU is the same as Article III-318(3) of the Constitutional Treaty.
Ralf Grahn
***
Current treaty
Article 181 of the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC) provides for cooperation and agreements with third countries. The member states retain their powers to act on the international arena and to conclude international agreements.
Article 181 TEC, as published in the latest consolidated version of the treaties in force, OJEU 29.12.2006 C 321 E/127:
Article 181 TEC
Within their respective spheres of competence, the Community and the Member States shall cooperate with third countries and with the competent international organisations. The arrangements for Community cooperation may be the subject of agreements between the Community and the third parties concerned, which shall be negotiated and concluded in accordance with Article 300.
The previous paragraph shall be without prejudice to Member States' competence to negotiate in international bodies and to conclude international agreements.
***
Original Lisbon Treaty
Article 2, point 164 of the original Lisbon Treaty (ToL) amends and renumbers Article 181 TEC, OJEU 17.12.2007 C 306/94:
164) An Article 188 G shall be inserted, with the wording of Article 181; the second sentence of the first paragraph and the second paragraph shall be deleted.
***
Consolidated Lisbon Treaty
After one more renumbering the undeleted parts appear of what has become Article 211 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), in the consolidated version published OJEU 9.5.2008 C 115/142:
Article 211 TFEU
(ex Article 181 TEC)
Within their respective spheres of competence, the Union and the Member States shall cooperate with third countries and with the competent international organisations.
***
Lisbon Treaty changes
Roughly two thirds of the text is deleted, but it is hard to see anything of value getting lost. In addition, Article 209(2) TFEU already says it.
Even the remaining part of the provision seems to have only an informative (declaratory) value.
Article 211 TFEU is the same as Article III-318(3) of the Constitutional Treaty.
Ralf Grahn
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
French EU presidency programme
For those who want to dig deeper than the media reports at the start of the French presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Work programme 1 July – 31 December 2008 is available in English on the presidency web pages:
http://www.ue2008.fr/webdav/site/PFUE/shared/import/0601_presidence_du_conseil_programme/programme_EN.pdf
Called ‘Europe taking action to meet today’s challenges’, the 33 page Work programme is a valuable inventory of ongoing and commencing matters in the European Union. The main themes, divided under a plethora of subheadings, are:
1. Making Europe a model of sustainable social, ecological and economic development
2. Making Europe more attentive to the rights, security and aspirations of citizens
3. Reinforcing Europe’s role on the international stage
Given effective vacation closure during August, the events calendar for the rest of this ‘short’ presidency is packed with conferences and events, which give the reader an additional view into topical EU themes.
Ralf Grahn
http://www.ue2008.fr/webdav/site/PFUE/shared/import/0601_presidence_du_conseil_programme/programme_EN.pdf
Called ‘Europe taking action to meet today’s challenges’, the 33 page Work programme is a valuable inventory of ongoing and commencing matters in the European Union. The main themes, divided under a plethora of subheadings, are:
1. Making Europe a model of sustainable social, ecological and economic development
2. Making Europe more attentive to the rights, security and aspirations of citizens
3. Reinforcing Europe’s role on the international stage
Given effective vacation closure during August, the events calendar for the rest of this ‘short’ presidency is packed with conferences and events, which give the reader an additional view into topical EU themes.
Ralf Grahn
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