EU Reforms: Treaty
Deal At Last!
European
Union leaders have finally reached a deal on a landmark treaty to
reform the 27-member bloc.
The agreement in Lisbon was sealed late on Thursday, after
objections from
Italy
and Poland
were trounced.
After seven hours of talks, EU leaders emerged
embracing each other in sheer relief that the most serious crisis
in the bloc's 50-year history seemed to be over.
In the last-minute negotiations, Italy gained an
extra seat in the future European Parliament, returning its
equality to the UK.
Poland secured a guarantee that small groups of
countries would be able to delay EU decisions they do not like.
Provisions
The treaty is designed to replace the European
Constitution that was rejected by French and Dutch voters in Year
2005 and will be formally signed on December 13th.
It includes the creation of a new longer-term
president of the European Council and an EU foreign policy chief.
If what will become known as the Treaty of Lisbon
is ratified by all member states, it will come into force in Year
2009.
National pride
Austria reached a deal over its bid to maintain
quotas for foreign students, with the European Commission agreeing
to suspend for five years its legal action over the country's
quota.
Bulgaria also won the right to call the EU single currency the
"Evro", rather than euro, in its Cyrillic alphabet.
What’s New?
The new Reform Treaty is designed to speed up
decision making in the expanded European Union. It will also
create a new president of the European Council, new EU foreign
affairs chief, a reformed voting system and scrap vetoes in dozens
of areas.
The 250-page document does not contain any
trappings of a super-state, such as the mention of the EU anthem
and flag.
It amends, rather than replaces, existing EU
treaties, a point which some countries - notably the UK - have
argued means there is no need for national referendums on the
document.
'Great achievement'
After the agreement was reached, Jose Socrates, the prime
minister of Portugal, which holds the rotating presidency,
said”Europe had emerged from an "institutional crisis"…With this
treaty,
Europe
is showing that the European project is on the move. Now we can
look forward to the future with confidence.”
European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso said the
treaty was a "great achievement”…I believe we have a treaty that
will give us now the capacity to act, our citizens want results.
They want to see in concrete terms what
Europe
brings them in their daily lives."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the UK's "red lines", which
his government had declared around various policy areas, had been
secured.
BBC/YINKA
