egoeccentric's Idiots Guide To The Lisbon Treaty

One of our sporadic politics posts, and probably the heaviest one yet, but I reckon this is fairly relevant. Bear with me...

I've been pondering this one for some time. It's really important that we understand the Lisbon Treaty before we go to vote on it in June, but it's an awkward bugger to understand.

I've tried to trawl through all the material on the subject (which is a bloody lot) in order to try to give it a summing up that you wouldn't need a degree in politics to understand.

As is the way with these things, they're tough to write without bias. I've tried to do so, but all the same a healthy skepticism is urged.

Just so you know where I stand, I started neutral but I'm now swinging towards Yes. I'm not a fan of any particular party so I have no agenda. Questions are welcomed, and I encourage anyone interested to check out information for yourself (RTE have a good section on it here).

Ok, so lets get started...


Background

The EU is essentially held together by a series of treaties between countries on various issues. As time goes by we have to update of these treaties to make them relevant & more effective. So the Lisbon Treaty is basically taking existing treaties (Masstricht, Rome etc) and crossing out some things, rephrasing others and inserting some new bits.

The point is to streamline the EU and make it 'more efficient' or 'better equipped to deal with challenges'.

At the moment we're working under a system designed for 17 states, but in fact there are 27 states involved. So the system needs to be updated in some way.

The initial plan was to do up a European Constitution, which was drawn up... but rejected by France & the Netherlands in 2005. It's rejection was more than likely due to campaigning by groups that were protective of the countries' individual sovereignty, and anti-globalisation movements.

Following this rejection, work was started on re-drafting the Constitution into a more acceptable form... the Lisbon Treaty.


So what's it all about?

The treaty has several functions. It's effectively summing up all the other treaties and making them all neat and tidy. The idea is to establish exactly the purposes of the EU, its aims, and how it functions.

And yes, there are some changes.

For example:

• The way in which decisions are generally made will be changed.
  
• The EU will be made into a solid legal entity.
• The sizes of the commission, and the parliament will be restricted.
• National parliaments will be given a greater roll.
• Introduction of 'Citizen's Initiative'.
  
• The Charter on Fundamental Human Rights becomes legal.

What the hell does all that mean?


Ok, lets looks at these main points:

1. The way in which decisions are generally made will be changed.

You'll have to excuse the jargon on this one. Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) will become the main way decisions are made (when opinions aren't unanimous).

This method is designed to fairly represent based on population, but at the same time allow for fears of smaller countries that they might be bullied by the bigger states. There's lots of provisions to ensure that this doesn't happen, like if four member states are against a contested proposal, no matter how big or small those states are- the proposal is shot down. This way smaller states aren't at risk of losing their voice.

How QMV is worked out is a very maths-y process, which isn't my strong point, so you can read about it here. All in all the process gets more democratic, and more representative of reality, ie all states have a say, not just the big uns, or the ones who were in first.


2. The EU will be made into a solid legal entity.

This seems to be an economic provision more than anything. The EU will be more effective on the World stage if it's recognised as a legal entity in itself, ie- it will be able to perform better in World markets.


3. The sizes of the commission, and the parliament will be restricted.

The European Comission will be reduced in size from 27 Commissioners to just 18.

This is done purely with efficiancy in mind. It was decided that there wasn't enough tasks to warrant 27 Commissioners, so a Commission of 18 will be more effective than 27, ie- decisions will be easier and faster made. Who sits on the commission will be allocated on a rotational basis, so at any given time there will be 9 countries without a Commissioner.

The amount of MEP's in Parliament will be capped at 751, for pretty much the same reason- you can't get things done with thousands of Ministers all vying for attention. The seats will be allocated proportionately based on population.


4. National parliaments will be given a greater roll.

For the first time, EU proposals will have to be run by National Parliaments before they're approved. The individual parliaments will be able to give their views on proposals well before they're passed, and if enough parliaments are opposed to the change it'll be amended or withdrawn. This gives us a bit more control of things, and eases some fears of the whole 'random bureaucrats in Brussels' thing.


5. Introduction of 'Citizen's Initiative'.

Another step in the same direction- for the first time regular citizens will be able to propose European legislation by producing a petition with a million EU signatures (which sounds a lot, but isn't really).


6. The Charter on Fundamental Human Rights becomes legal.

The Charter on Fundamental Human Rights does exactly what it says on the tin. It's a great document which sets out standards of human rights. Right now it has no legal standing, merely a guideline, but Lisbon makes it legal. This means it can stand up in court. So if you reckon your human rights are being breached in some way, you can go to an Irish court on the basis that it breaches this EU charter.

Our own Irish constitution is particularly kickass on human rights anyway, so we pretty much already have the benefits that this provides, but that's not the case for all 27 countries in the union.


Things you've probably heard or are wondering about:

• Does the Lisbon Treaty affect Ireland's neutrality?

There is a thing in the treaty called the 'Solidarity Clause', which says that member states are compelled to help another member state if it falls victim to a natural disastour, terrorist attack, etc. BUT... the treaty explicitly states that individual countries foreign policies are respected. Which means that Ireland's neutrality will be preserved. So there's no risk of anyone being conscripted into a super-european army.

• Will the treaty have any impact on the environment or climate change?

Yes. For the first time the environment is focused on. The treaty adds to the aims of the EU the intention to preserve the environment, and recognises the threat of climate change. By adding this to the unions aims, it allows Europe to actually do something about the issue.

• Will losing a permanent commissioner take power away from Ireland?

Yes and no, but mostly no. First off, it's not just Ireland who'll lose a commissioner, every country will, so we're not being picked on- it's just fairer that way. Secondly, and more important- the nature of the commission is that commissioners are not representatives for their own country, but all countries in the union. On entering their post they have to swear an oath saying they'll be motivated only for the good of the union, not the country of their nationality. So even if Ireland had a commissioner in 24/7, it wouldn't mean more of a voice for Ireland.


I reckon I've covered most aspects of the treaty here, at least the ones that seem to be most controversial, but it's totally worth having a look into it yourself.

If anyone has any other element which the want cleared up, or any questions on it, ask away via comment or email and I'll do my best to answer.

The most important thing is to actually get out and vote, be it yes or no, as this will affect all of us in some way or another (this means you, Bob, you buffoon). Do it!

Click here for the add-on to his post: 'More Idiot's Guide to the Lisbon Treaty'