Finland’s political landscape changed significantly following its parliamentary elections on April 17th. The landslide victory of the EU- and euro-sceptic True Finns Party brought to an end the hegemony long enjoyed by the three main parties with distinctively pro-European sympathies. This EPIN commentary offers insights into the implications of the Finnish elections for both key domestic policies as well as the country’s European policy.

This fully revised, second edition of the Ever-Changing Union provides a concise overview of the EU’s history, institutional structures and decision-making processes. It looks at the fundamental principles of European integration and describes the progress of this integration from its beginning. It also covers the EU’s main institutions and how they interact in the decision-making process as a whole. This new edition focuses on the changes introduced by the Lisbon Treaty and explains how the EU’s external action is conducted by the post-Lisbon EU.

The new Lisbon Treaty has completely changed the role of the rotating presidency. Before Lisbon, the political responsibility of each of presidency included almost all areas of the European project with the main decisions being brokered by national diplomats. Under the new system this ‘political’ dimension has been seriously curtailed, if not done away with. The main task of rotating presidencies in the new institutional system is to manage ongoing legislation within the Council and with the European Parliament.

How, for what and to whom can citizens hold accountable the expenditure of some €120 billion each year by the EU budget? This book highlights three main factors that lie at the root of an accountability gap: opaque revenue arrangements making citizens unaware of their contribution, the setting of numerous and grand objectives whose vague expectations are hard to account for and, finally, the delegation of the main management to member state bodies that are not accountable at EU level.

This Commentary identifies several key weaknesses and oversights implicit in the proposals on the table at the October 2010 European Council summit to discipline EU member states whose governments exceed EU deficit or debt limits. As a more effective alternative, the author proposes enlisting the power of opposition parties and the bond markets curb such excesses.
John Bruton is a member of the CEPS Board of Directors. He served as Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland from 1994 to 1997 and as the Ambassador of the European Union to the United States from 2004–09.

Despite its protracted ratification process and pledges from national administrations and EU authorities that the Lisbon Treaty had closed the issue of treaty reform for the foreseeable future, a number of modifications to the EU treaties are currently in the pipeline. This Policy Brief provides an overview of the various procedures that are available for changing the Treaty of Lisbon.
The author, Peadar ó Broin, is an Associate Research Fellow at CEPS.
 

Together with researchers from two other Brussels-based research institutes ¬Egmont (Belgium’s Royal Institute of International Affairs) and the European Policy Centre (EPC), CEPS examines the institutional innovations that are gradually being introduced as a result of the Treaty of Lisbon.
Contributors:
CEPS: Piotr Maciej Kaczyński, Peadar ó Broin
EGMONT: Franklin Dehousse, Philippe de Schoutheete, Tinne Heremans, Jacques Keller, Guy Milton (in association), Nick Witney (in association)

The Treaty of Lisbon entered into force five months ago, introducing six major institutional innovations that were supposed to make the Union more efficient, more transparent and increase its legitimacy. Twelve authors from the European Policy Institutes Network consider how the ‘new’ Europe is shaping up and whether it is likely to have any more appeal for European citizens.

This paper argues against the view that Bulgaria’s EU accession was premature and that the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) is not delivering. The EU’s continued leverage and the efficacy of the CVM are explained in a framework that goes beyond the dual-conditionality paradigm of incentives and sanctions, and beyond the unitary players model of EU-Bulgarian relations. In this framework, the CVM is viewed as an instrument for supportive reinforcement rather than for the imposition of sanctions.

Following the 2008 edition, dedicated to the French, Czech and Hungarian Trio Presidency, 14 European think tanks have joined together once again to address their recommendations to the current Trio, of Spain, Belgium and Hungary.
With the establishment of the permanent European Council presidency and the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy the role of rotating presidencies has changed and thus that of the Trio Presidency, detailed in the Treaty of Lisbon.

One of the institutional innovations provided for in the Lisbon Treaty is the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), which aims to engage European citizens with the European project, help mobilise civil society and strengthen pan-European debate on European policies. But what happens if a citizens’ proposal is deemed inadmissible by the European Commission? CEPS Researcher Piotr Kaczyński considers this question in a new Commentary and makes suggestions for an appropriate response by the European Commission and other institutions.

The new Treaty of Lisbon brings important changes to the European construction, including a significant expansion of common policies decided by the Community method, a stable President for the European Council, a strengthened framework for external policies, more transparent and effective decision-making and strict safeguards of subsidiarity.

After weeks of intense speculation, the question of who will fill the new EU positions of European Council President and High Representative for EU foreign policy has now been answered: Herman Van Rompuy will take office as European Council President on 1 January 2010; and Catherine Ashton will be appointed the EU’s foreign affairs chief on 1 December 2009. The question of precisely what powers these two individuals will exercise under the new Treaty of Lisbon, however, remains largely unanswered, as it is not yet clear how they will perform as individuals and in tandem.

Most of the media attention given to the ratification process of the Lisbon Treaty in the Czech Republic has been devoted to the antics of the President, Václav Klaus. The process is being delayed, however, not only by the President’s reservations and requests for a Czech (quasi)opt-out from the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, but also by the pending review of the Treaty by the Czech Constitutional Court (CCC), which is looking into the Lisbon Treaty for the second time; having delivered its first decision in autumn 2008.