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The Treaty of Lisbon: New Signals for Future Enlargements

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The Treaty of Lisbon: New Signals for Future Enlargements EIPASCOPE 2008/1 The Treaty of Lisbon: New Signals for Future Enlargements The Treaty of Lisbon: New Signals for Future Enlargements? By Sonia PiedrafitaPiedrafita*1 The Lisbon Treaty was negotiated against the background of a new strategy on enlargement based on consolidation of existing commitments, better communication to citizens, stricter conditionality and the consideration of the EU’s capacity to integrate new members. It has introduced some changes to Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union, which specifies the basic procedures for accession of new members. These relate to the promotion of the EU values, ? better information to both the national and the European parliaments and the explicit reference to conditions for entry laid down by the European Council. This contribution, on the one hand, reviews this new strategy on enlargement. On the other, it examines to which extent the new treaty provisions reflect the less favourable climate and whether they may represent any major 33 change in practice. Enlargement of the EU has figured prominently in recent ○○○○○○○○○○○○○ capacity”. It will then examine whether the new provisions public debates over the future of Europe. It was regarded introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon reflect this less favourable as an important factor behind the negative result in the climate for enlargement and to which extent they are going referendums on the Constitutional Treaty in France and the to make a difference to common practice so far. Netherlands, even though the reasons given by citizens for a negative vote were usually related to economic From absorption capacity to integration capacity considerations, the lack of information or the threat to the national government.2 Indeed, support for enlargement The climate for enlargement has become less favourable in has been decreasing in the recent years in many old the last decade, triggering a new strategy for enlargement Member States,3 and only 29% of their citizens think that ○○○○ based on stricter conditionality and on the capacity of the enlargement has a positive impact on the EU.4 Union to integrate new members without hindering its At the EU level, decision-makers seem to prefer a pause goals and policies. Traditional concerns about the impact in order to digest completely of new members on the the last accessions and functioning of the Commun- consolidate existing commit- The climate for enlarge- ity institutions and policies ments. Caution about further turned into the notion of enlargements is also fed by ment has become less “absorption capacity” on the uncertainty about how en- occasion of last enlarge- largement is going to affect favourable in the last ment, and “integration the future of the EU in terms capacity” more recently. of the manageability of its decade, triggering a new Even though it was not decision-making process, until June 1993 that the deeper integration or a single strategy for enlargement Copenhagen European voice in the world. Inevitably, Council first formally stated enlargement-related issues based on stricter condition- that “the Union’s capacity to have been present in both absorb new members, while the European Convention’s ality and on the capacity of maintaining the momentum debates and the intergovern- of European Integration” mental negotiations leading the Union to integrate new was an important consider- to the Treaty of Lisbon. ation to take into account This contribution will first members. when considering a mem- review the policy background bership application, these against which the recent Treaty reform has taken place, ○○○○ were already concerns in previous rounds of enlargement. focusing on the new strategy on enlargement, and on the One fear about the accession of Denmark, Ireland and the evolution from “absorption capacity” to “integration United Kingdom was that it could affect the capacity of the www.eipa.eu ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ? Community to work efficiently and further complicate challenges for the manageability of the decision-making progress in Community policies (Deighton and Milward process, especially in view of the increased size and 1999). And when the Community was still digesting with heterogeneity and the specific features of the newcomers. some difficulties the absorption of these new members, the The accommodation or “absorption” of the new members application of Greece again prompted voices of alarm may be regarded as a successful but still ongoing process, about both the institutional capacity of the EC to work with with neither they nor the Union having fully finalised the more members and the consequences for the integration necessary adjustments. On the one hand, the EU institutional process (Verney 2007). The subsequent applications by and treaty reform process has not been completed yet, and Portugal and Spain further increased these concerns pressure for further change may still emerge in the future (Tsoukalis 1981). as the result of enlargement and other factors. On the The first response to the membership applications from other, the new Member States are still in the process of the EFTA countries (Austria, Finland, Norway, Sweden), developing efficient mechanisms to participate in and and to increasing pressure influence EU decision- from the Central and Eastern making, improve their ad- European Countries (CEECs) The accommodation or ministrative capacity to for a clear “European pers- implement the acquis and pective”, was the Commis- “absorption” of the new EU policies, and prepare sion’s report “Europe and their economies for full the challenge of enlarge- members may be regarded membership of the Economic ment”, submitted to the and Monetary Union and Lisbon European Council in as a successful but still the challenges of the Lisbon The Treaty of Lisbon: New Signals for Future Enlargements June 1992. The report strategy. outlined the challenges that ongoing process, with The need to allocate time the accession of the EFTA and resources to the goal of countries, and to a still neither they nor the Union completing the process greater extent the accession successfully, the increasing 34 of the CEECs, could pose for having fully finalised the pressure for accession from the effectiveness of the candidate and potential Community, its institutions, necessary adjustments. candidate countries, the and the development of the treaty-reform fatigue result- common policies (EC 1992). ing from two decades of Indeed, one of the main reasons for excluding from the ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ intense widening and deepening, and the blame laid on Association Agreements with the CEECs a “membership enlargement for the failure of the ratification of the European clause”, such as had been included in similar agreements Constitution, all triggered the development of a new strategy with Greece and Turkey in the past, had been the risk that by the European Commission in 2005. “Consolidation, their accession could pose for the “deepening” process Conditionality, Communication: The strategy of the taking place in 1991, when the terms of political and enlargement policy” was based on three lines of action: economic union were agreed. consolidation of existing commitments, better communi- The capacity to absorb new members was traditionally cation to citizens in order to improve the legitimacy of the assessed through the Commission’s opinions on the process, and application of fair and rigorous conditionality applications for membership, examining on the one hand to the candidate countries so that they are ready to fulfil the candidates’ ability to assume the obligations of their obligations as members and implement Community membership including their acceptance of EU policies and, policies (EC 2005). The Commission stressed that future on the other, the impact of accession on the Union, in areas enlargement should depend on the candidate’s such as the functioning of the rotating Council Presidency, performance in meeting the standards in order to ensure estimates of net financial transfers based on existing common the smooth absorption of the new members, and should policies, or the addition of official EU languages. Given the also guarantee the capacity of the Union to act and decide special difficulties and challenges involved in the eastern according to a fair balance within its institutions. enlargement, the possible consequences were the subject Rigorous and fair conditionality implies first that the of a special Commission Communication in 1997: “Agenda “Union has ‘to demand fulfilment of the accession criteria 2000: For a stronger and wider Union”. In this case, the ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ and duly reward countries that make progress” and, Commission not only delivered an opinion on the candidates’ second, that “accession negotiations at any stage in the applications but also examined the likely impact of the accession process may be suspended if these criteria are enlargement more generally, proposing EU budgetary and not met.” Whereas the fulfilment of the enlargement criteria policy reforms (EC 1997). In the same vein, in parallel to the implied a single judgement as to whether an applicant met Regular Report on Turkey and its recommendation to open the minimal requirements for membership, the principle of negotiations in October 2004, the Commission also conditionality involves continuous scrutiny by the EU of all presented a detailed Impact Study on “Issues raised by spheres of the legal, political and economic reforms in the Turkey’s possible membership in
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