Brussels, 10/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, José Manuel Barroso declared that the Lisbon Treaty, which has been in force more than a year now (December 2009), “has succeeded its stress test”. During a conference on the first anniversary of his Commission (Barroso II), the president of the Commission explained that during the serious upheavals the EU had to confront in “the most serious economic and financial crisis since European integration, the new Treaty was confronted with unprecedented challenges from the very first day of its existence”. He also said that it was obviously “too early to draw definitive conclusions about how the Lisbon Treaty is working” and how it has changed the EU (“several years will certainly be needed to do this”). Nevertheless, he pointed out that even within the space of a year “we have succeeded in putting in place the majority of innovations introduced by the Treaty”. The Commission president was pleased that in all areas where the Lisbon Treaty has introduced co-decision between the Council and the European Parliament (whether this is in the justice and home affairs arena or in agriculture), “the two institutions have cooperated efficiently”, although some people had predicted “lengthy blockages”. He also explained that the European Court of Justice was now already beginning to give its decisions of principle on the Charter “which we will duly take into account”. The European External Action Service (EEAS) had also been successfully set up, in a “specific situation” and in difficult circumstances.
Intergovernmental approach. Given that the Lisbon Treaty clearly favours the Community approach for more Europe, there is now a temptation that certain member states will resort to intergovernmental methods (for example, in an effort to strengthen economic governance, see the Franco-German initiative for a Competitiveness Pact), which could provoke a number of concerns, acknowledged Barroso. These fears are not, however, always justified because as was often the case in the past, intergovernmental initiatives can also sometimes push forward European integration and will ultimately help towards creating more Europe. Barroso stated that “experience has demonstrated to us that there are effectively times when member states are subject to different pressures and are not able to progress along the Community method path. We only have to think of the setting up of the Schengen area, of construction of the justice, freedom and security area. This involves domains where a preference had been expressed to begin together along alternative paths to the Community method and, ultimately, the European Union moved forward and achieved results”. Nonetheless, it is necessary to ensure that these intergovernmental initiatives do not threaten the accomplishments of the EU or impact on the way it exercises its remit under the Treaty. The Commission president added: “Similarly, any initiative by member states must respect the fundamental principles on which the European project is built. Action should be taken whilst respecting the principle of equality for all member states within the Treaties and on the basis of the principle of fair cooperation”. The chosen approach must also strengthen solidarity and cohesion within the Union, he said. Barroso affirmed: “We only have to look at the situation to see that it is characterised by much more of the Community approach than just a few years ago”. (H.B./transl.fl)