Today, on 1 December 2009, the Lisbon Treaty (Treaty) enters into effect. The Treaty was signed two years ago, on 13 December 2007 in Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal. The official name of the new document is the Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community. The Treaty establishing the European Community will further be called the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union.
The Treaty is the outcome to almost a decade of institutional and political reforms in the European Union (EU). "The Treaty aims at a more democratic, transparent and effective working of the EU in future. At the same time, the reform of the policy areas implemented by the EU alongside the streamlining of the decision making process will allow the Member States to work together coherently also in future, in the EU citizens' interests, with the aim of facilitating sustainable development, competitiveness and strengthening the role of the EU on a global arena," Foreign Minister Riekstins indicates.
The Treaty provides opportunities for the direct involvement by the EU citizens in the work of the European Union. The Treaty supports the Citizens' Initiative, which allows one million citizens from a significant number of Member States to call on the Commission to bring forward new legislative initiatives in policy areas within the EU competence. The Treaty renders legally binding the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which ensures that human rights and fundamental freedoms are observed both in the EU's institutional operations and when developing the rules of action for the policy areas implemented by the EU. At the same time, the national parliaments have a considerably greater control over the functioning of the EU. Further on, the national parliaments of Member States will have a possibility to decline the EU's legislative proposals and to check whether the new legislative initiatives are in line with the division of competencies between the EU and Member States.
The Treaty provides the required improvements to strengthen and develop a more concerted EU's external action. The Treaty establishes the post of the High Representative for the Union in Foreign Affairs and Security Policy as well as the European External Action Service. The latter has been designed as an EU diplomatic service of a kind, aimed to represent the EU's interests both on the international scale - in relations with various countries and regions worldwide, and with international organisations.
