EU Lisbon Treaty main points

The Reform Treaty, or Lisbon Treaty, of the European Union is opaque for experts and hopeless for ordinary citizens. The present treaties are amended, so anyone interested in comprehending the whole has to read the present EU and EC treaties alongside the amendments, paragraph by paragraph. The annexed protocols and declarations have reached new levels of disparity and incomprehensibility.

Still, the bravest citizens can access the authentic texts on the web pages of the Council, in all the official languages of the European Union:

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/cms3_fo/showPage.asp?id=1317&lang=en&mode=g

The documents approved by the intergovernmental conference have been added, as well as a few technical adjustments. Further technical precisions are possible, if linguistic corrections are made.

The signing ceremony is planned for 13 December 2007 in Lisbon, so the treaty package is probably going to be referred to as the Lisbon Treaty in the future.


***

Citizens, who are interested, but with less of a masochistic bent, are able to find shorter press releases and comments with the main ingredients of the Reform Treaty.

Here is a small European sample.


In English:

What Lisbon contains; Economist 25.10.2007; http://www.economist.com

Hugo Brady & Katinka Barysch: The CER guide to the Reform Treaty; October 2007; http://www.cer.org.uk

Over and done with – at last; European Policy Centre 24.10.2007; http://www.epc.eu

Daniel Gros & Stefano Micossi: Two for the price of one? Centre for European Policy Studies CEPS 22.10.2007; http://www.ceps.eu

Jean-Dominique Giuliani : Understanding the European Council in Lisbon and the Reform Treaty; Fondation Robert Schuman; http://www.robert-schuman.eu


In Dutch:

Mendeltje van Keulen, Bas Limonard & Jan Rood: De Europese Unie na het Verdrag van Lissabon; Clingendael European Studies Programme 22.10.2007; http://www.clingendael.nl


In French:

Jean-Dominique Giuliani: Comprendre le Conseil européen de Lisbonne et le Traité réformateur ; Fenêtre sur l’Europe 22.10.2007 ; http://www.fenetreeurope.com

Audition de Pervenche Berès, sur le Traité modificatif ; Confrontations Europe 19.10.2007 ; http://www.confrontations.org


In Swedish :

Statsminister(n)s upplysning till riksdagen om resultaten från regeringskonferensen 23.10.2007; http://www.vn.fi

Ett nytt fördrag för EU; Regeringskansliet 24.10.2007; http://www.regeringen.se

Reformfördragets innehåll; EU-upplysningen 8.10.2007; http://www.eu-upplysningen.se

EU:s reformfördrag; Regeringskansliet 24.10.2007; http://www.regeringen.se

Detta innehåller reformfördraget; Europa-Nytt 22.10.2007; http://www.europanytt.se

EU-länderna godkände reformfördraget; Statsrådets kommunikationsenhet 19.10.2007; http://www.vn.fi


In Finnish:

EU:n sopimusuudistus; Eurooppa-tiedotus 26.10.2007; http://www.eurooppa-tiedotus.fi

EU:n uudistussopimus eli Lissabonin sopimus, tietosivu 3/2007; Eurooppa-tiedotus 26.10.2007; http://www.eurooppa-tiedotus.fi

EU-maat hyväksyivät uudistussopimuksen; Valtioneuvoston viestintäyksikkö 19.10.2007; http://www.vn.fi

Pääministerin ilmoitus eduskunnalle hallitustenvälisen konferenssin tuloksista 23.10.2007; http://www.vn.fi

***


Perhaps you readers would be kind enough to communicate on other useful summaries or publications you have come across.


Ralf Grahn