The Birth of a Legislature: The EU Parliament after the Lisbon Treaty

Abstract

By the end of 2009, Ireland, the Czech Republic, and Poland finally ratified the Treaty of Lisbon. This marked the end of a turbulent period that had seen the Laeken Declaration, a controversial and rejected proposal for a Constitution for Europe (in 2005), and the hard fight over the compromise of the Treaty of Lisbon. The Treaty of Lisbon entered into force on 1 December 2009. All involved parties did their utmost to play down the importance of the Lisbon Treaty in attempt to prevent the re-ignition of earlier debates. In fact, the Treaty of Lisbon was widely presented as a step backward compared to the overly ambitious constitutional treaty. This 'cover-up', however, cannot hide that the institutional changes brought about by Lisbon are quite significant. In particular, the changes to the legislative procedure and legal instruments of the Union are significant and major. This contribution takes a look at these changes and the new and more powerful position of the European Parliament in the ordinary legislative procedure. The overaching question the contributions addresses is whether the new Lisbon legislative procedure constitutes a true 'legislature' in the classical sense.

Keywords: Lisbon Treaty, ordinary legislative procedure, special legislative procedure, EU regulation, EU Directive, delegated regulation, delegated directive, legislative instruments, non-legislative instruments, delegation, comitology, implementing measures

JEL Classification: K100, K20, K40, O52