EUCO challenge: growth despite budget balancing

We already looked at the summary offered by the European Council. Since I enjoy the luxury of being able to blog about yesterday's news, I'll try to discuss what EUCO said about economic growth, competitiveness and jobs.

The conclusions of the European Council are available in all 23 official EU languages: in English: European Council 1/2 March 2012 (EUCO 4/12).

After the clear summary, the conclusions start with part I. Economic policy (paragraphs 1-24) and II. International summits (paragraphs 25-28).

Since our leaders do not want to ”burden” us with helpful links or references to the relevant documents, the process of reading becomes slow, even if we only want to hint at the existing official positions.


Stability and consolidation

The first paragraph lays the foundation. I understand financial stability as both a banking sector in working order and as tolerable borrowing costs for governments and enterprises. Fiscal consolidation means smaller budget deficits:

1. The European Union is taking all necessary measures to put Europe back on the path to growth and jobs. This requires a two-pronged approach, covering both measures to ensure financial stability and fiscal consolidation and action to foster growth, competitiveness and employment.

We enter a politically charged area. If deficits are cut, the hovercraft sinks to the ground. It lands on those who have received money from public coffers in some form, including the poor, which in turn slows the rest of the economy.

It may be socially understandable and politically tempting to protest, but do the protestors have real alternatives?

I would like to think there are, but I am afraid I do not see much possibilities this time around.

Between October 2008 and December 2010 the EU member states poured 10.5% of GDP as aid into the financial sector, but problems remain in the banking sector.

Many of the EU governments have no money to spare, and their borrowing is prohibitively expensive.


Alert Mechanism Report (AMR)

Naturally, some can dismiss the EU Commission is part of the same conspiracy as I am, but take the time to read the first Alert Mechanism Report 14.2.2012 COM(2012) 68, which offers a broader view of macroeconomic imbalances than mere budget deficits. (The AMR is available in 22 languages.)


Right or wrong?

Although the first report of its kind, I find the AMR ”family portrait” disturbing as well as essentially convincing, against the background of a clear loss of competitiveness and exports for the EU as a whole.

If we return to the pub discussion level, I would not expect a majority of the EUCO members to be ideologically driven enough to want to slash budgets and gain impopularity just for the fun of it.

At the same time, they have made their own game harder: regaining competitiveness and returning to economic growth, despite efforts to diminish public deficits.

Cold comfort for the jobless, but in my humble opinion, EUCO has made the right basic choice.

What can be done in these circumstances?



Ralf Grahn
speaker on EU affairs, especially digital policy and law

P.S. Between the global issues and the national level, with a tenuous hold on democracy, the European Union institutions and the eurozone coteries shape our future. At the same time we see a European online public sphere emerging. Grahnlaw (recently ranked fourth among political blogs in Finland), Grahnblawg (in Swedish) and Eurooppaoikeus (in Finnish) are among the more than 900 euroblogs aggregated by multilingual Bloggingportal.eu. Are you following the debates which matter for your future? Is your blog already listed on Bloggingportal?

Olli Rehn asserts budget consolidation and structural reform

The EU commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, Olli Rehn, Friday tried using reason with regard to the eurozone bond market turmoil:

Ongoing developments in the eurozone; 5 August 2011 SPEECH/11/540

According to Rehn, the latest market run on members of the euro area is not reasonable:

The spread of bond-market tensions across the euro area is, however, not justified by economic and budgetary fundamentals. Economic recovery is proceeding in most parts of the euro area, while important steps in budgetary consolidation and structural reform are underway across Europe and in particular in those Member States most exposed to market tensions.

My blog entry Rehn asserts eurozone recovery concluded that the commissioner had documented his case regarding growth, in the European Union as a whole and Cyprus, Italy and Spain specifically. (Naturally, if the markets turn ugly enough, anything can happen.)

I noticed that fellow blogger Protesilaos Stavrou fired a new broadside at the EU leadership - including José Manuel Barroso, Herman Van Rompuy and Olli Rehn – for ”challenging reason and real world facts”.

Should we look a bit more specifically at Rehn's assertion about budgetary consolidation and structural reform?


European Semester

The European Commission started the first beefed-up and streamlined planning cycle called the European Semester by a 12 January 2011 communication from Rehn's DG Ecfin. The AGS is available in 22 official EU languages; here the English version:

Annual Growth Survey: advancing the EU's comprehensive response to the crisis; Brussels, 12.1.2010 COM(2011) 11 final (10 pages)

DG Ecfin offers all interested readers an informative web page Stability and Convergence Programmes (or updates) and National Reform Programmes 2011, where you can find links to the national programmes for sustainable public finances (Stability and Growth Pact SGP) and for growth-enhancing reforms in line with the Europe 2020 strategy.

Although you have to look separately for intermediary stages, such as European Council conclusions and contributions by various Council configurations, there are links to the Commission staff working papers and proposed recommendations for the euro area and for each member state (including Cyprus, Italy and Greece).

The Ecofin Council concluded the first European Semester by issuing recommendations regarding both budget consolidation and structural reforms, exactly six months after the publication of the AGS.

Having been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, these recommendations and opinions are available in the EU language of your choice:

COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION of 12 July 2011 on the implementation of the broad guidelines for the economic policies of the Member States whose currency is the euro; OJEU 23.7.2011 C 217/15

COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION of 12 July 2011 on the national reform programme 2011 for Cyprus and delivering a Council opinion on the updated stability programme of Cyprus, 2011-2014; OJEU 16.7.2011 C 210/12

COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION of 12 July 2011 on the National Reform Programme 2011 of Italy and delivering a Council opinion on the updated Stability Programme of Italy, 2011-2014; OJEU 21.7.2011 C 215/4

COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION of 12 July 2011 on the National Reform Programme 2011 of Spain and delivering a Council opinion on the updated Stability Programme of Spain, 2011-2014; OJEU 19.7.2011 C 212/1

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Having read the AGS and the recommendations and opinions, I invite readers to demonstrate where Rehn went over board in his assertion about budgetary consolidation and structural reform. (Again, a stampede can obliterate the worthiest intentions.)



Ralf Grahn

Tracking eurozone crisis measures: Barbarians at the gate

Despite the decisions taken with regard to Greece, the battering rams of the markets were pounding the gates of the eurozone castle and sappers were undermining the walls of confidence.

Business as usual was no longer an option for the second largest currency in the world.



We have fundamental reforms to carry out and we will carry out those reforms. It is a major priority for me and for the European Council, said president Herman Van Rompuy in a statement on Greece and solidarity in the Euro Area on the eve of an extraordinary weekend (5 May 2010).



In our latest blog post we tracked the eurozone crisis measures to the activation of financial support for Greece, but now we start to turn towards the responses given to the challenges for the whole eurozone, as well.



The extraordinary meeting of the heads of state or government of the euro area 7 May 2010 issued a statement, which endorsed the implementation of the support package for Greece, described as reflecting the principles of responsibility and solidarity.


16 Musketeers



The national leaders reiterated, in their own words, the motto of the Three Musketeers “all for one, one for all”:

In the current crisis, we reaffirm our commitment to ensure the stability, unity and integrity of the euro area. All the institutions of the euro area (Council, Commission, ECB) as well as all euro area Member States agree to use the full range of means available to ensure the stability of the euro area.

Consolidation and stabilisation

The heads of state or government outlined the next steps towards fiscal consolidation, endorsed the actions of the European Central Bank (ECB) and indicated the establishment of a European stabilisation mechanism during the same weekend:

Today, we agreed on the following:

- First, consolidation of public finances is a priority for all of us and we will take all measures needed to meet our fiscal targets this year and in the years ahead in line with excessive deficit procedures. Each one of us is ready, depending on the situation of his country, to take the necessary measures to accelerate consolidation and to ensure the sustainability of public finances. The situation will be reviewed by the Ecofin Council on the basis of a Commission assessment by the end of June at the latest. We have asked the Commission and the Council to strictly enforce the recommendations addressed to Member States under the Stability and Growth Pact.

- Second, we fully support the ECB in its action to ensure the stability of the euro area.

- Third, taking into account the exceptional circumstances, the Commission will propose a European stabilization mechanism to preserve financial stability in Europe. It will be submitted for decision to an extraordinary ECOFIN meeting that the Spanish presidency will convene this Sunday May 9th.

In addition, the leaders of the euro area were prepared to strengthen economic governance and to make rapid progress on financial markets regulation and supervision.

Practically every timetable was accelerated, with the Europe Day ECOFIN Council called to hammer out the details.




Ralf Grahn

Eurozone: Budget consolidation in Austria

On 26 April 2010 the Council examined the updated stability programme of Austria, which covers the period 2009 to 2013:



COUNCIL OPINION on the updated stability programme of Austria, 2009-2013; OJEU 27.5.2010 C 137/7.


The Opinion describes the effects of the financial and economic crisis, which pushed the Austrian economy into the deepest recession in post-war history. Public finances deteriorated significantly. The Council decided on 2 December 2009 that an excessive deficit existed in Austria and issued a recommendation to correct the deficit by 2013.

In comparison with the 3 per cent government deficit and 60 per cent government debt to GDP, the reference values of the Stability and Growth Pact, the Opinion offers the following picture:

The Austrian stability programme estimates the general government deficit in 2009 at 3.5 % of GDP. Government gross debt is estimated at 66.5 % of GDP in 2009, up from 62.5 % in the year before.

The Council makes the evaluation that overall, in 2010 the budgetary strategy set out in the programme is consistent with the Council recommendation under Article 126(7) TFEU. However, from 2011 on, taking into account the risks, the budgetary strategy may not be consistent with the Council recommendation under Article 126(7) TFEU.

The consolidation path outlined in the programme, starting in 2011 is not underpinned by appropriate measures. In addition, the budgetary strategy is not sufficient to bring debt-to-GDP ratio back on a downward path.

In view of the new assessment and in the light of the recommendation under Article 126 TFEU of 2 December 2009, the Council of the European Union invited Austria to:

(i) substantiate the measures deemed necessary to underpin the planned consolidation from 2011 onwards, in order to achieve the recommended average annual fiscal effort of 0,75 % of GDP and bring the general government deficit below the 3 % of GDP reference value by 2013; and seize, as prescribed in the EDP recommendation, any opportunities beyond the fiscal effort, including from better economic conditions, to accelerate the reduction of the gross debt ratio back towards the 60 % of GDP reference value;

(ii) further improve the budgetary framework to reinforce fiscal discipline at all levels of government through enhanced transparency and accountability notably by aligning legislative, administrative and financing responsibilities between the different levels of government and by strengthening enforcement mechanisms under the internal stability pact.

Austria is also invited to submit in time for the assessment of the effective action under the excessive deficit procedure an addendum to the programme to report on progress made in the implementation of the Council recommendation under Article 126(7) of 2 December 2009 and to outline in some detail the consolidation strategy that will be necessary to progress towards the correction of the excessive deficit.

The Opinion is useful as an example of the periodic assessment of a eurozone government’s economic and budgetary policies, as well as peer pressure towards action.




Ralf Grahn

ECOFIN’s euro rescue

The statement by the heads of state or government of the euro area 25 March 2010 evoked the shared responsibility of all euro area members for the economic and financial stability in the eurozone. The leaders were willing to take determined and coordinated action, if needed.



They did not have to wait long for the need to arise, to which they responded by the statement of the heads of state or government of the euro area (7 May 2010), which we summarised in our previous blog post: Euro Group leaders rescuing the euro (15 May 2010).



ECOFIN



The extraordinary meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN), representing the 27 EU member states, on 9 to 10 May 2010 (conclusions, document 9596/10) was left with the task to follow up on the soothing words of the national leaders in the eurozone with a credible package of deeds.



Greece, consolidation and structural reform


The ECOFIN Council decided on the support package for Greece, the establishment of a European stabilisation mechanism and a commitment to accelerate fiscal consolidation “where warranted”.

The ministers welcomed the “ambitious and realistic” consolidation and reform programme of Greece and promised the first disbursement of aid by the eurozone members by 19 May 2010.

Portugal and Spain promised to take significant additional consolidation measures in 2010 and 2011 and to present them at the 18 May 2010 ECOFIN Council. They were going to announce structural reform measures.



European financial stabilisation mechanism

The European financial stabilisation mechanism was established among EU27, based on Article 122(2) TFEU.

The conclusions reiterated the conditions for financial assistance: The EU faces exceptional circumstances beyond member states’ control.

The following sentence was slightly more ambiguous: We are facing such exceptional circumstance today …

Perhaps “such” can be seen as covering the ‘beyond control’ part as well, but not in a clear fashion.

Since conclusions from Council meetings are fairly brief summaries of main points, we often have to turn to Commission proposals and Council decisions for added detail; in this case the adopted Council Regulation.

Have the EU institutions argued transparently and convincingly with regard to the absence of control?

As stated in earlier blog posts, the Open Europe blog and Bruno Waterfield have accused the EU of outright lies, so a closer look is required in a matter of these proportions (€60 billion).



Special Purpose Vehicle

The complementing €440 billion “highly conditional” Special Purpose Vehicle was established between the governments of the euro area member states (through pro rata guarantees), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was expected to contribute by half as much.

The Commission was going to propose stronger measures for fiscal discipline and crisis resolution on 12 May 2010.

Measures on financial market regulation and supervision were promised.



My impressions

The ECOFIN conclusions were fairly strong verbally. Both eurozone members and EU27 showed a sense of purpose and commitment rarely achieved before.

The conclusions were meant to have a shock and awe effect on jittery markets, and for the first day or so the climate improved.

However, towards the end of the week the euro and stock prices plummeted among concerns about the unsustainable pace of sovereign debt accumulation and levels.

This is a familiar pattern: The member states (the European Union) invest heavily in a show of unity, followed by a short feel-good respite. Soon enough doubts and negative reactions set in, triggered by individual member state governments, opposition parties, trade unions and social disruptions, as well as doubts among pundits and major market players regarding all of the above.

This is another problem area we have to look at during the course of this series of blog posts on financial stabilisation in the European Union (eurozone).




Ralf Grahn

EU consumer protection: Product safety notifications can save lives

In the policy area of consumer protection, there is now a consolidated version, updated per 1 January 2010, of the EU’s General Product Safety Directive (GPSD) 2001/95:



DIRECTIVE 2001/95/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 3 December 2001 on general product safety; (Text with EEA relevance); 2001L0095


Serious risks

Article 12 of Directive 2001/95/EC established a Community Rapid Information System ‘RAPEX’ for the rapid exchange of information between the Member States and the Commission on measures and action taken in relation to products posing a serious risk to the health and safety of consumers.


Non-serious risks

The notification procedure established under Article 11 of Directive 2001/95/EC provides for an exchange of information between the Member States and the Commission on measures adopted in relation to products posing a non-serious risk to the health and safety of consumers.


Information and notifications

The European Commission has now replaced its Decision on product safety information and notifications by new guidelines:






COMMISSION DECISION of 16 December 2009 laying down guidelines for the management of the Community Rapid Information System ‘RAPEX’ established under Article 12 and of the notification procedure established under Article 11 of Directive 2001/95/EC (the General Product Safety Directive); published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) 26.1.2010 L 22/1


Consumer protection is an area where the European Union can literally help to save life and limb.




Ralf Grahn





P.S. Christian Engström, Pirate MEP, challenges established interests and business models by presenting the views of the Pirate Party on reforming the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR). The blog posts are in Swedish or English.


Christian Engström’s blog is listed with more than 500 great Euroblogs on growing multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, your useful one-stop-shop for fact, opinion and gossip on European affairs, i.a. politics, policies, communication, economics, finance, business, civil society and law. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed for new blog posts appearing on Bloggingportal.eu.

Now is the one year anniversary of Bloggingportal.eu. During this first year the number of blogs almost doubled.

By the way, I also discuss European issues in Finnish on Eurooppaoikeus and in Swedish on Grahnblawg.

EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS Directive): Learning the ropes

In the previous blog post, EU Audiovisual Media Services: History, amendments & consolidation (28 December 2009), we sketched the history from the Television without Frontiers Directive 1989 to the “new”, amending TVWF Directive 1997.



Consolidation

In this context we mentioned the consolidated version of the Directive. One of the many useful EU web resources for people willing to learn is the Europa Glossary, which offers more or less intelligible explanations of EU jargon and terms.

Here is what Europa Glossary has to say on consolidation of legislation (informal or declaratory):

There is a special procedure for unofficial, purely declaratory consolidation of legislation and simplification of legal instruments. The incorporation of subsequent amendments into the body of a basic act does not entail the adoption of a new instrument. It is simply a clarification exercise conducted by the Commission. The resulting text, which has no formal legal effect, can, where appropriate, be published in the Official Journal (C Series) without citations or recitals.

In other words, the consolidated version offers you the updated text of the Articles in force. In the 1997 consolidation, the text of Directive 97/36 had been inserted into Directive 89/552.

But if you need to know the Whys of the legal Act, you have read the Recitals (Whereas) of the original Act, as well as the Recitals of the amending Act(s) with regard to the reasons and scope of the amendments.

If you want to dig deeper, the Recitals offer you the legislative history of the Acts: “legal basis”, references to the Commission proposal, opinions and resolutions. For this you need either the original Acts or to access the files on the legislative processes on Pre-Lex or Oeil.



Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS Directive)


In this case, we knew that there was a further major amendment to the TVWF Directive(s). We knew the number of the original TVWF Directive 89/552 (the amending Directive 97/36) and the latest amending AVMS Directive 2007/65.



Since we were interested in the latest amendment, we tried the simple search on Eur-Lex, filling in Directive, year 2007 and number 65 for the amending Directive under Natural number.



The page offered us access to the Bibliographic notice, which gave us the procedure number COD/2005/0260 and the Commission’s original proposal COM(2005) 646, among other things. There was also a link to the European Parliament’s Legislative Observatory Oeil.



The procedure file on Oeil is a gold mine, because at one glance it offers a view of the Commission’s original and modified proposals, the Council’s position and the European Parliament’s Committee reports and resolutions.



Procedure and substance


This blog post tried to offer readers examples of how to navigate the legislative procedures, in order to access and to understand EEC/EC/EU legal acts.

Procedural understanding offers generally applicable tools for interested users, but this mini-series started from a genuine interest into the substance of developing EU regulation of television broadcasting and audiovisual services.

The time has come, I think, to turn to the substance of the latest amending act, the AVMS Directive.

This will be the aim of future posts, intertwined with procedural remarks, when called for.




Ralf Grahn



P.S. Read Julien Frisch and other great euroblog(ger)s listed on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, our common “village well” for fact, opinion and gossip on European affairs.

EU codification and consolidation: Euro introduction

On the European Union’s portal for legal information, Eur-Lex, there is a useful sidebar with Preparatory acts.



It leads us to the reports and proposals of the Commission – COM documents – and to the accompanying SEC documents (often with more detailed background information).

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Codification

One way to simplify EU legislation is by replacing old legal acts, amended a few times (maximum ten), by new codified versions. Codification leads to a new act, although the exercise is technical. It does not change the substance of the original act, as amended, so the procedure is expedited.

A recent example of a proposal to codify EU legislation is the Commission’s Proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) No …/… of […] on the introduction of the euro (Codified version) (Brussels, 1.7.2009 COM(2009) 323 final). Procedure number 2009/0083 (CNS).



The proposal offers a clear example of the codification procedure.

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Consolidation

Eur-Lex often offers an unofficial consolidated (updated) version of a law. By using the simple search function for the legal act in question – in this case Regulation 974/98 – by year (1998) and number 974, the Bibliographic notice shows the existing consolidated versions.

In this case we find that the latest consolidated version is of 1 January 2009.




Ralf Grahn

European Union: Reduced VAT rates

The long wrangle over reduced rates of value added tax (VAT) reaches a (temporary) close with the publication of Council Directive 2009/47/EC of 5 May 2009 amending Directive 2006/112/EC as regards reduced rates of value added tax, in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) 9.5.2009 L 116/18.

Locally produced services

Directive 2009/47 allows member states the possibility of applying reduced VAT rates to the labour-intensive services covered by the temporary provisions applicable until the end of 2010 as well as to restaurant and catering services, and it enters into force on 1 June 2009.

A few specific exemptions are included.

Consolidation

At this moment, the latest consolidated version of the VAT Directive, Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax, originally published OJEU 11.12.2006 L 347/1, is of 21 January 2009.




Ralf Grahn

European Union: Transport competition

Looking for amendments to European Union (European Community) legislation is time-consuming. Reading disjointed versions is laborious and prone to errors, especially if several amendments have been made.
Updated and readable legal acts are therefore important for users. Issuing codified versions or at least publishing consolidations of amended legal acts are means to save time and effort for businesses and their advisors.

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Transport competition

One example of such a tidying-up exercise in the field of rail, road and inland waterway transport is:

Council Regulation (EC) No 169/2009 of 26 February 2009 applying rules of competition to transport by rail, road and inland waterway (Codified version), has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) 5.3.2009 L 61/1.

The scope of this Regulation, based on Article 83 of the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC) and with EEA relevance, is:

Article 1
Scope

The provisions of this Regulation shall, in the field of transport by rail, road and inland waterway, apply both to all agreements, decisions and concerted practices which have as their object or effect the fixing of transport rates and conditions, the limitation or control of the supply of transport, the sharing of transport markets, the application of technical improvements or technical cooperation, or the joint financing or acquisition of transport equipment or supplies where such operations are directly related to the provision of transport services and are necessary for the joint operation of services by a grouping within the meaning of Article 3 of road or inland waterway transport undertakings, and to the abuse of a dominant position on the transport market. These provisions shall apply also to operations of providers of services ancillary to transport which have any of those objects or effects.


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Balancing act

In principle, the competition rules of the European Community (Articles 81 and 82 TEC) are general, but Article 83(2)(c) provides for rules which take into account ‘the various branches of the economy’. The treaty sees transport as a distinct area, with its special features (Title V), so the rules balance between competition principles and what are perceived as branch concerns.


Ralf Grahn

Traité de Lisbonne – A Lisbon Treaty commentary

François-Xavier Priollaud and David Siritzky have produced a valuable commentary on the Treaty of Lisbon ’Le traité de Lisbonne – Commentaire, article par article, des nouveaux traités européens (TUE et TFUE)’.

The contents of the amended Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union are presented as in the first Council consolidation published 16 April 2008, but with the amendments highlighted for ease of use.

Fairly detailed comments explain each Article of the Treaty on European Union, whereas the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union is dealt with in thematic summaries.

Regardless of the ultimate fate of the Lisbon Treaty, the book is going to be of lasting interest to people interested in the EU treaty reform process.

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François-Xavier Priollaud & David Siritzky : ’Le traité de Lisbonne – Commentaire, article par article, des nouveaux traités européens (TUE et TFUE) (La Documentation française, Paris, 2008 ; 523 pages ; about 21 EUR)

www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr


Ralf Grahn

Consolidated Treaty of Lisbon and other EU materials

People continue to arrive at this blog while looking for a consolidated version of the Treaty of Lisbon, and often they have been referred by a search engine to an older post on consolidated versions or the lack of such.

It seems to take a while for the word to spread that the Council has, at last, published consolidated versions of the amended treaties.

At the same time, below are the main resources concerning the treaty reform process post Nice.


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New TEU and TFEU

The Council’s provisional consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) has been available since 16 April 2008. Go to the following Lisbon Treaty web page and choose your preferred treaty language (out of 23):

http://consilium.europa.eu/cms3_fo/showPage.asp?id=1296&lang=en

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Original Treaty of Lisbon

The original unconsolidated Treaty of Lisbon (ToL) with the amendments to the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community, signed at Lisbon, 13 December 2007, was published in the Official Journal of the European Union, OJ 17.12.2007 C 306/1.

The amending Lisbon Treaty is available in 23 treaty languages through:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOIndex.do?year=2007&serie=C&textfield2=306&Submit=Search&_submit=Search&ihmlang=en

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Current TEU and TEC

Until the Lisbon Treaty amendments enter into force, the European Union and the European Community continue to work according to the Nice and accession treaties. In addition to being the legislation in force, the current treaties form the basis for comparison with the proposed changes.

The latest consolidated versions of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and of the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC) have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, OJ 29.12.2006 C 321 E/1.

For the consolidated treaties in force in your preferred language version among the then 21 treaty languages (Bulgarian and Romanian missing), go to:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOIndex.do?year=2006&serie=C&textfield2=321E&Submit=Search&_submit=Search&ihmlang=en

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Draft Constitution

After the less than satisfactory Treaty of Nice, the treaty reform process was re-launched by the Laeken Declaration and the work accomplished by the European Convention, which produced the draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, published OJ 18.7.2003 C 169/1.

Here you can find the draft Constitution, which formed the basis for the following intergovernmental conference(s) (IGC 2003 and 2004) and most of the proposals debated today, in the treaty languages at that time (excluding Gaelic and the official languages of the entrants 2004 and later):

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOIndex.do?year=2003&serie=C&textfield2=169&Submit=Search&_submit=Search&ihmlang=en

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Constitution

During the IGC 2004 the governments of the member states agreed on and signed the Treaty establishing the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, published OJ 16.12.2004 C 310/1. By then, ten countries had become EU members in 2004 and Gaelic had become an official EU language, so only Bulgarian and Romanian language versions are unavailable there.

The Constitutional Treaty, which was ratified by two thirds of the member states, is available at:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?year=2004&serie=C&textfield2=310&Submit=S%C3%B6k&_submit=S%C3%B6k&ihmlang=en

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Other consolidations

Before the Council published its consolidations, there were – as far as I was able to find out – consolidated versions for a minority of the member states, but a majority of EU citizens through other channels. The latest compilation was the blawg post ‘Consolidated EU Lisbon Treaty Update April 2008’, published 9 April 2008:

http://grahnlaw.blogspot.com/2008/04/consolidated-eu-lisbon-treaty-update.html


A blog post ‘Lisbon Treaty updates: Promising and promised’ of 15 April 2008 added information on two new publications by the IIEA, a new highlighted version making it easy to see the changes and an Irish Gaelic consolidation:

http://grahnlaw.blogspot.com/2008/04/lisbon-treaty-updates-promising-and.html

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Dear Reader,

Consolidations in book form, commentaries, articles and official papers on the Treaty of Lisbon, as well as on EU law and politics generally, are in constant demand. Please, share your information with me and the readers of this blog.


Ralf Grahn

EU: Consolidated Lisbon Treaty and beyond

Yesterday marked a great step forward for practical equality between citizens of the European Union. Formally, the principle of equal treatment applied as long as the Council published no consolidated language versions of the Treaty of Lisbon.

But in practice national consolidations were available only in a number of languages. As far as we were able to ascertain, there were readable versions in most of the widely spoken languages within the European Union.

These are rough guesses, because we can not be sure that the information we managed to gather was conclusive: Perhaps six out of ten EU citizens could find a readable version of the Lisbon Treaty in their own language, but a consolidated version was available in less than half of the treaty languages.

By finally publishing the Treaty of Lisbon in the 23 treaty languages, the Council filled a considerable void. Millions of European citizens can now read, debate, study and teach the amending treaties in their main language without unnecessary trouble.

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The Council of the European Union issued a note to the reader stating that the publication is ‘provisional in nature’. If errors crop up during the ratification stage, these have to be corrected (Council cover note, document 6655/08).

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What about this blog?

My aim has been to advance through the treaties as they stand if the Treaty of Lisbon enters into force. Until now it has been possible to progress one Article a day, without exceptions, and hopefully this can continue.

Even if this blog is written in English, something changes when readers with another main language can refer to a consolidated version in their own language.

Somehow, I feel that it would be natural to outline the future posts a little differently from now on. These thoughts are ‘provisional in nature’, so tell me if you have ideas:

First, the basic element would be “a slice of salami”, one treaty Article (a day) as consolidated. This means that redundant or fairly insignificant provisions are treated as well, at least superficially. A headline, more or less accurate, may help you to find what you are looking for.

Second, a look at the possible changes made by the intergovernmental conference would follow. Most of the internal policy areas remain largely unchanged, but that does not prevent anyone from trying to understand the treaty provisions the policies are based on.

Third, the preceding treaty reform stages, namely the current treaty, the draft Constitution and the Constitutional Treaty, would be presented either through comments or by offering the text of the provision.

Fourth, depending on the circumstances there may be more or less objective comments, subjective opinions or suggestions for further reading (in the general area under study).

***

This is how the next leg of the journey looks like, after the publication of the consolidated Lisbon Treaty in the 23 treaty languages.


Ralf Grahn

Consolidated EU Lisbon Treaty in 23 languages

The Council of the European Union has finally published the readable, consolidated Treaty of Lisbon in 23 treaty languages on its web site. Go to:

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/showPage.asp?lang=en&id=1296&mode=g&name=

In a few days ten months would have passed from the European Council meeting, which decided to convene the intergovernmental conference (IGC 2007), ten long months without a readable version of the most important EC and EU document since 2004.

Finally, most of the EU’s 490 million citizens can read the treaty in their own language (or at least the official language of their country) as it is supposed to stand when it enters into force.

Based on consolidated versions Europeans can at least begin to (mis)understand each other on a common basis of facts.


Ralf Grahn


P.S. After checking the Official Journal this morning, I had to do other things than to continue chasing the promised consolidations. I got the above information from John Carroll of Semper Idem on his Irish Election blog, a post called 'Lisbon - The nuts and bolts', of 16 April 2008:

http://www.irishelection.com/04/lisbon-the-nuts-and-bolts/

I am grateful to John Carroll for both his kind words and for the essential information on publication of the amending EU treaties.

Readable Lisbon Treaty: Four months gone and missing

The European Convention worked openly and its draft Constitution was published immediately. The IGC 2004 operated behind the closed doors, and it took one and a half month to publish its full results, the Constitutional Treaty, in the Official Journal.

The Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community was signed at Lisbon 13 December 2007. Today is 16 April 2008, so more than four months have passed without readable, consolidated versions published in each of the now 23 treaty languages.

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The Lisbon Treaty is arguably the most important EC and EU document since 2004. If all legislation including proposals should be in the public domain, in a full and readable form – including tennis rackets aboard planes or not – the founding treaties are the one EU example above all others, long before they enter into force.

The Treaty of Lisbon is the document intended to define our rights and obligations as EU citizens, and of the member state(s) we are citizens of and where we live. We have a legitimate interest to know in full how these relationships are being defined and what the needed ratifications entail.

The Council, I am sorry to say, took the opposite view. Without any public justification it decided to postpone the publication of the consolidated versions until the Lisbon Treaty would have entered into force. If precedents were needed, one would have to return to an almost forgotten era, the Treaty of Nice, signed in 2001, and a world where web publishing was in its early stages.

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Luckily, some private individuals, organisations, parliaments and even governments broke the conspiracy of silence by publishing consolidated versions of the Lisbon Treaty. Among these were some of the governments rumoured to be among the opponents of publishing in the Council.

But until this day, only a part of the citizens of the European Union have access to a (fairly accurate) consolidated version of the Lisbon Treaty in their own language.

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Finally, there was good news. The Council must have relented. The following information was posted on the Commission’s web site dedicated to the Lisbon Treaty:

“A consolidated version of the Treaty will be published on 15 April on the web and on 9 May on paper version.”

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Finally, I thought, and 9 April 2008 posted what I reckoned to be the final update on different consolidated versions ‘Consolidated EU Lisbon Treaty Update April 2008’, as a tribute to those who have produced and published consolidations and as a last reminder to those who needed one during the final week before official publication.

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Yesterday was to be the great day for EU citizens.

I scoured every imaginable EU web site in search of the consolidations without finding any new mention (including any explanation for the delay).

Later in the day, I queried Europe direct by e-mail, but received no immediate answer.

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A short while ago I checked the Official Journal of 16 April 2008 as well as the Council’s web site. A new day is beginning, but still nothing.

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In addition to all the lofty principles of closeness, openness, transparency and democracy that permeate the Lisbon Treaty, it is ironic that the same governments who have intentionally delayed the publication of readable treaties are the ones who have declared the importance of national translations in regional and minority languages.

For a good laugh, let us turn to Declaration number 16 contained in the Final Act of the Treaty of Lisbon (OJ 17.12.2007 C 306/254):

16. Declaration on Article 53(2) of the Treaty on European Union

The Conference considers that the possibility of producing translations of the Treaties in the languages mentioned in Article 53(2) contributes to fulfilling the objective of respecting the Union's rich cultural and linguistic diversity as set forth in the fourth subparagraph of Article 2(3). In this context, the Conference confirms the attachment of the Union to the cultural diversity of Europe and the special attention it will continue to pay to these and other languages.

The Conference recommends that those Member States wishing to avail themselves of the possibility recognised in Article 53(2) communicate to the Council, within six months from the date of the signature of the Treaty of Lisbon, the language or languages into which translations of the Treaties will be made.

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Yes, how about the official languages to start with?

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The only thing citizens and bloggers can do is to keep the repeated failures of the Council in public view and the intergovernmental machinations in distrust.



Ralf Grahn

Lisbon Treaty updates: Promising and promised

Promising: In addition to the first consolidation of the Lisbon Treaty and the later updated and complete consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), Peadar ó Broin of the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), in Dublin, has kindly informed me that there is a new, consolidated, highlighted and annotated version of the Treaty of Lisbon in English and a consolidated Irish Gaelic version.

They have not been published on the Institute’s web pages yet, but try asking for a copy by e-mail.

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Promised: The clock is ticking this Tuesday 15 April 2008, but I have yet to find information from any EU institution consistent with the following information posted on the Commission’s web page on the Treaty of Lisbon:

“A consolidated version of the Treaty will be published on 15 April on the web and on 9 May on paper version.”

Where is it?


Ralf Grahn

Consolidated EU Lisbon Treaty Update April 2008

In a short while consolidated versions of the EU’s Treaty of Lisbon are going to be published, with web publication 15 April 2008 followed by book versions 9 May 2008 (Europe day), presumably in 23 treaty languages.

The Council has made a wise decision by relinquishing its absurd and counter-productive opposition to readable treaties, but its marketing of this new-found openness could have been more vigorous and transparent.

The Commission quietly updated its Questions and Answers section about the Lisbon Treaty in the following way:

“A consolidated version of the Treaty will be published on 15 April on the web and on 9 May on paper version.”

http://europa.eu/lisbon_treaty/faq/index_en.htm#20

Margot Wallström, at least, highlighted the importance of readable, consolidated versions of the Lisbon Treaty, both the IIEA’s and the coming ‘official’ version, when she spoke to the Irish Institute of European Affairs in Brussels, 7 April 2008:

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/08/180&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

One small point where Wallström was a bit too selective, in my opinion, concerned the publication of consolidations:

The latest treaty to have entered into force is the Treaty of Nice, signed in 2001. Outside the Council web communications have advanced considerably since then.

And the draft Constitution and the Constitutional Treaty, which never entered into force, were quickly published (and they were already readable, ‘consolidated’ treaties).

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The Lisbon Treaty is arguably the most important European Union document since 2004

As a tribute to those individuals and organisations who have served the public by preparing and publishing consolidated versions in a considerable number of EU languages, I want to publish a list of the consolidations of the Lisbon Treaty I am aware of, often thanks to the help of kind readers.

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The languages are mentioned in alphabetical order in English:


Danish

The EU information of the Danish parliament communicates actively. Some information is available in English, too. The consolidated Lisbon Treaty is an update.

Folketingets EU-Oplysning: Sammenskrevet udgave af udkastet til Lissabon-traktaten og det gaeldande traktatunderlag; Bind 1 Traktater, Bind 2 Protokoller og erklaeringer;
http://www.eu-oplysningen.dk/emner/reformtraktat/reform/sammenskrevet/


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Dutch

The DJ Nozem blog pointed me towards this new consolidation in Word format, compiled by René Barents and posted on the web site of the daily NRC Handelsblad.

René Barents: Geconsolideerde teksten van het Verdrag betreffende de Europese Unie en het Verdrag betreffende de werking van de Europese Unie zoals gewijzigd door het Verdrag van Lissabon

http://www.nrc.nl/redactie/Europa/verdraglissabon_barents.doc

I want to thank Anonymous who brought to our attention that the government of the Netherlands has published a complete Dutch version of the Treaty of Lisbon on the web pages of the Foreign Ministry,

www.minbuza.nl

The web pages offer us the TEU, TFEU, Euratom Treaty, the Protocols and the Final Act:

1. Verdrag betreffende de Europese Unie
2. Verdrag betreffende de werking van de Europese Unie (voorheen EG-Verdrag)
3. Verdrag tot oprichting van de Europese Gemeenschap voor Atoomenergie (Euratom)
4. Protocollen gehecht aan het Verdrag betreffende de Europese Unie, het Verdrag betreffende de werking van de Europese Unie en/of het Verdrag tot oprichting van de Europese Gemeenschap voor Atoomenergie
5. Slotakte bij het Verdrag van Lissabon, inclusief Verklaringen

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English

IIEA

Peadar ó Broin at the Institute of International and European Affairs (Dublin, Ireland) has produced a complete updated consolidation of the amended treaties, including the protocols and annexes, in a format easy to read (pdf).

Treaty on European Union
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
Annexes to the EU and FEU Treaties
Protocols to the EU and FEU Treaties and, where appropriate, to the EAEC Treaty

Go to http://www.iiea.com


Statewatch

Professor Steve Peers has painstakingly compiled an annotated version consisting of several files for the Statewatch Observatory on the EU Constitution and the Reform Treaty, where similarities and differences between the different reform stages are highlighted. Informative, if you know what you are looking for.

Go to http://www.statewatch.org


FCO

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office published a complete consolidated version of the Treaty of Lisbon. The ratification debate in the House of Commons is ongoing.

The FCO web pages on Britain in the EU contain both general information on the Reform Treaty and answers on specific questions in addition to the consolidation I just mentioned. For the consolidated version of the Lisbon Treaty, see Command Paper 7310 ‘Consolidated texts of the EU Treaties as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon’:

http://www.fco.gov.uk/Files/kfile/FCO_PDF_CM7310_ConsolidatedTreaties.pdf

The FCO also published Command Paper 7311 ‘A comparative table of the current EC and EU Treaties as amended by the treaty of Lisbon’, which briefly sets out the similarities and differences between the Lisbon Treaty and the other relevant Treaties article by article. Available through the Official Documents web page (as is Cm 7310 mentioned above):

http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/


Markus Walther

Markus Walther, a German student from Leipzig, who produced and published a German consolidated version of the EU Treaty of Lisbon on his web site, posted an English readable consolidated version as well (a preliminary document without protocols and charter).

Go to http://www.mwalther.net/europa/eulaw-lisbon-mwalther.pdf


Open Europe

Open Europe produced a consolidated version with the Treaty of Lisbon and the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe presented side by side for convenient comparison.

Open Europe: The Lisbon Treaty and the European Constitution: A side-by-side comparison; January 2008;

http://www.openeurope.org.uk/research/comparative.pdf


Constitreaty.com

The web site and accompanying blog at Constitreaty.com is an ongoing work to present the Constitutional Treaty and the Lisbon Treaty side by side for easy comparison, with highlighting and tracked changes facilitating the task.

When I checked a few moments ago, Parts I to III of the Constitution were available (with Part IV and the Final Act under construction). Try it out at:

http://www.constitreaty.com/


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Finnish

The government and Europe Information, of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, has promised a consolidated version of the Lisbon Reform Treaty, in Finnish and Swedish by mid April, which coincides with the publishing of all web versions by the Council.

I have not noticed if the Finnish government intends to do anything beyond the general Council plans.

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French

Europa-EU-Audience

The bilingual web site en.europa-eu-audience found two unofficial parallel versions, leaked from the European Parliament, of the amending treaties in French, side by side with the current ones:

http://europa-eu-audience.typepad.com/fr/files/EP_TCE_versus_TFU_Final.doc

http://europa-eu-audience.typepad.com/fr/files/EP_TUE_versus_TUE_final.doc

By the way, the site is worth following because of its keen interest on availability of EU sources and the evolution of web informatics.


Assemblée nationale

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


Later, the French National Assembly has presented a consolidated version of the Treaty of Lisbon side by side with the current treaties. Look for Assemblée Nationale: Rapport d’information déposé par la Délégation de l’Assemblée Nationale pour l’Union Européenne, sur le traité de Lisbonne ; No 562, Tome 2, 8 janvier 2008 :

http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/13/dossiers/traite_lisbonne_due_information.asp


Jean-Luc Sauron

Jean-Luc Sauron: Comprendre le Traité de Lisbonne – Texte consolidé intégral des traités – Explications et commentaires ; Gualino éditeur, Paris 2008 ; 351 p. (Prix 20 €)

The book (pages 141 – 351) contains, in a handy format, consolidated versions of the amended Treaty on European Union, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Explanations relating to it as well as a modest Index.

In principle, the Treaty texts are based on a version from 30 October 2007, but footnotes take later modifications into account.

Christine Kaddous and Fabrice Picod

Traité sur l’Union européenne / Traité sur le fonctionnement de l’Union européenneecueil de textes (Published 18 February 2008) Staempfli SA (Berne), Bruylant (Bruxelles), L.G.D.J. (Paris) 342 pages, CHF 59.-, 43 euros, ISBN 978-3-7272-9144-9

A complete consolidation in French.

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German

Markus Walther

Markus Walther: Das Primärrecht der Europäischen Union; Endfassung, Stand 18. Dezember 2007; (updated after signing)

http://www.mwalther.net/union.html


Klemens H. Fischer

The book “Der Vertrag von Lissabon – Text und Kommentar zum Europäischen Reformvertrag”, by Klemens H. Fischer (Nomos, Stämpfli Verlag and Verlag Österreich) describes the EU reform process and especially the IGC 2007 before it presents consolidated and annotated versions of the TEU and TFEU including protocols and declarations. The accompanying CD-Rom contains background material and three different consolidations of each treaty: with amendments highlighted and footnotes, with amendments highlighted and a neutral consolidated version.

Zukunft Europa

Just a short while ago Tünde commented on an old post that there is another German consolidated version of the Treaties on:

http://www.zukunfteuropa.at/site/5895/default.aspx

As far as I understand, Klemens H. Fischer has allowed Zukunft Europa to make his consolidation available to the public on the web.



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Hungarian

Two sources reported that the Hungarian government has published a consolidation of the Lisbon Treaty, although was not able to verify it. But I encourage anyone with the linguistic and technical skills to search (and to report back).


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Irish Gaelic

A consolidation in Irish Gaelic has been announced by the Institute of International and European Affairs, Dublin (but I have not been able to locate it).

Go to http://www.iiea.com

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Portuguese

Peadar ó Broin reported on a version in Portuguese also, prepared by the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

http://www.eu2007.pt/NR/rdonlyres/1D96311C-F90D-4E97-B355-DFEA0DD1ABEA/0/TLconsolidado.pdf

Alternatively, you can link to the text via the website for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

http://www.mne.gov.pt/

Or you can link via the website for the Portuguese Presidency of 2007:

http://www.eu2007.pt/UE/vPT/Presidencia_Conselho/TratadoLisboa.htm


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Spanish

Real Instituto Elcano offers a complete updated consolidation, with protocols and declarations, in Spanish, compiled by José Martín y Pérez de Nanclares and Mariola Urrea Corres. The former has written an introductory study worth reading.

http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org


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Swedish

Sieps – Svenska institutet för europapolitiska studier, the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies, has published a complete consolidated Swedish language version of the Lisbon Treaty.

http://www.sieps.se

Go to the new Sieps web pages dedicated to the Lisbon Treaty:

http://www.lissabonfordraget.se/


Ladda ned Lissabonfördraget - Konsoliderad version av EU:s fördrag (pdf)
Ladda ned Lissabonfördraget – Protokoll mm (pdf)


The publisher SNS Förlag has published a handy pocket version of the Treaty of Lisbon in Swedish. Having received my own copy, I am happy to announce that it contains the Charter of Fundamental Rights, Protocols, a Table of equivalences and a five page Register in addition to the consolidated treaty texts.


http://www.sns.se


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I am most grateful, if you want to share your knowledge about the Treaty of Lisbon as well as EU law and politics generally with me and other EU citizens: books and resources, such as official documents from the member states’ governments and parliaments, scholarly assessments and popular literature, plus information on the ratification processes.


Ralf Grahn

Consolidated EU Lisbon Treaty Update 29 March 2008

My search for readable, consolidated versions of the coming EU Reform Treaty, the Treaty of Lisbon, started in October 2007 and continues until the Council has published consolidated versions of the Lisbon Treaty in every official language of the European Union.

The goal is in sight, but we are not yet there. Therefore I want to present a short update, which builds on the latest relevant posts.

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The latest overview of existing consolidated language versions is to be found in the 5 March 2008 post ‘EU UE: Lisbon Lissabon Lisboa Lisbonne Lisbona Lisboa’:

http://grahnlaw.blogspot.com/2008/03/eu-ue-lisbon-lissabon-lisboa-lisbonne.html

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Then there is the 25 March 2008 addendum ‘Complete French Consolidated Lisbon Treaty’ about two language versions. The Swedish pocket version has now been published, and since the post I have received my own copy. It was a positive surprise that it contains the Charter of Fundamental Rights, Protocols, a Table of equivalences and a five page Register in addition to the consolidated treaty texts.

The post spread the announcement of a new French consolidated version by Christine Kaddous and Fabrice Picod:

http://grahnlaw.blogspot.com/2008/03/complete-french-consolidated-lisbon.html

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The latest addition was the confirmation in the press release of the government of Finland that the Council is actually going to publish consolidated versions of the Treaty of Lisbon in every official language of the European Union, in April. See the 27 March 2008 post ‘Finland: EU Lisbon Treaty ratification bill’

http://grahnlaw.blogspot.com/2008/03/finland-eu-lisbon-treaty-ratification.html

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Naturally, it is a great step forward when there are consolidated versions of the Lisbon Treaty available to all EU citizens, but experience has shown that both printed and other web versions are still in demand.

In order to keep the readers of this blog informed, I appreciate if you tell me about new consolidations and secondary literature on the Treaty of Lisbon (and the European Union in general), such as official documents, brochures, commentaries, scholarly assessments and textbooks in different languages.


Ralf Grahn


P.S. Updated update: The Commission has quietly updated its Questions and Answers section about the Lisbon Treaty in the following way:

“A consolidated version of the Treaty will be published on 15 April on the web and on 9 May on paper version.”

http://europa.eu/lisbon_treaty/faq/index_en.htm#20

Finland: EU Lisbon Treaty ratification bill

The government of Finland has approved the bill on ratification of the EU Treaty of Lisbon. Formally the bill is sent to the Parliament by the president tomorrow, 28 March 2008. The government’s press release recapitulates the main points of the Lisbon Treaty, and it misses only the latest of the six ratifying member states, Bulgaria.

Bearing in mind the Council’s reticence to publish consolidated versions of the amending treaty, the Finnish government’s press release confirms one interesting detail of general European interest, long awaited, namely that the Council is relenting, although the press release does not call it that.

It just states that a consolidated version of the treaties is expected to be finalised in April, in every official language of the European Union.

The press release was available in Finnish and Swedish a short while ago, but not (yet?) in English.


Ralf Grahn




Hallituksen esitys Lissabonin sopimuksen hyväksymisestä eduskunnan käsiteltäväksi; Tiedote 99/2008, Ulkoasiainministeriö, 27.3.2008 13:59;
Link in Finnish:

http://www.valtioneuvosto.fi/ajankohtaista/tiedotteet/tiedote/fi.jsp?oid=224386

Regeringens proposition om godkännande av Lissabonfördraget överlämnas till riksdagen; Pressmeddelande 99/2008, Utrikesministeriet, 27.3.2008 14:02;
Link in Swedish:

http://www.valtioneuvosto.fi/ajankohtaista/tiedotteet/tiedote/fi.jsp?oid=224388

Complete French Consolidated Lisbon Treaty

Every readable version of the EU’s Treaty of Lisbon gives cause for joy to students, teachers, practitioners and active citizens. Since my latest, 22 March 2008 post ‘EU: Consolidated Lisbon Treaty’ I have received publishers’ information about two developments (but I have not yet seen the books myself):


Swedish

It has been announced that the promised pocket version of the Treaty of Lisbon has been published by SNS Förlag.


French

I relay the following information to you, dear readers, about a complete consolidated version of the Lisbon Treaty in French:

Traité sur l’Union européenne / Traité sur le fonctionnement de l’Union européenne

Christine Kaddous / Fabrice Picod

Recueil de textes, paru le 18 février 2008 Staempfli SA (Berne), Bruylant (Bruxelles), L.G.D.J. (Paris) 342 pages, CHF 59.-, 43 euros, ISBN 978-3-7272-9144-9

L’objectif de cet ouvrage est de procurer aux lecteurs un accès aisé aux nouveaux traités sur l’Union européenne et sur le fonctionnement de l’Union européenne, tels qu’ils résultent des modifications apportées par le traité de Lisbonne du 13 décembre 2007.

Il regroupe, dans une version consolidée :

le traité sur l’Union européenne,
le traité sur le fonctionnement de l’Union européenne,
deux tables de concordance,
les protocoles et déclarations,
la Charte des droits fondamentaux de l’Union européenne et les explications y relatives.

Une introduction présente les principaux apports du traité de Lisbonne.

Christine Kaddous, Professeur à l’Université de Genève, Chaire Jean Monnet, dirige le Centre d’études juridiques européennes

Fabrice Picod, Professeur à l’Université Panthéon- Assas (Paris II)

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I am grateful if you want to share your information on consolidations as well as official documents and secondary literature in different languages on the amending Lisbon Treaty.


Ralf Grahn