Global Policy Memo
Commentary and Counterpoint on World Affairs
Posted by Josh Goodman on November 3, 2009 at 9:37 pm
filed under Europe, International Law
Tagged czech, EU, Europe, kafka, treaty of lisbon, unification
Today, the Czech president signed the Treaty of Lisbon at Prague Castle, clearing the way for the treaty to become law. Prague Castle may have been a particularly appropriate setting, given its likely inspiration of Kafka’s The Castle, that impenetrable stronghold of a mysterious, inscrutable bureaucracy. The purpose of the treaty is to increase the transparency, legitimacy, and democracy of the EU, while strenghtening its international power–for example, by creating a more powerful president and foreign minister. Here are a few questions that come to mind:
International law: To what extent should the EU continue to be treated as a collection of independent states whose legal relationships can be characterized as “international”? For example, customary rules of international law emerge from the practices of states adhered to out of a sense of legal obligation. Let’s say the 27 states of the EU all refrain from the death penalty because they believe it to be against international law, but China and the U.S. do not. That would seem to make China and the U.S. outliers. But should Europe continue to be treated as if it is 27 separate states on this question and others like it?
Foreign Policy and Military Affairs: One purpose of the treaty is to unify European foreign policy. But how far can diplomacy go if it is not tied to a credible military force for interventions, peacekeeping, interdiction, leverage, etc.? Say, for example, the EU’s optimal foreign policy would be to support U.S. efforts in stabilizing Afghanistan; yet the EU would still be very dependent on the participation of member states to implement such policy. NATO will remain relevant in providing security and security cooperation in Europe, possibly underming both the unity and the strictly European nature of European foreign policy.
Democracy: The treaty makes a number of attempts to increase EU democracy — most obviously by expanding the powers of the European Parliament, which is directly elected. On the other hand, questions may be asked about the democratic legitimacy of the Lisbon Treaty itself. It is an unreadable, 200+ page catalog of amendments to previous EU treaties. It was adopted as a treaty directly by national governments given the failure of the proposed EU constitution. Yet the Treaty embodies many of the failed constitution’s elements. As a potentially revealing commentary on the EU’s struggle to realize transparency in government, it is interesting to compare the language of the preamble to the Treaty of Lisbon with that of the U.S. Constitution:
Treaty of Lisbon Preamble
PREAMBLE
1) The preamble shall be amended as follows:
(a) the following text shall be inserted as the second recital:
‘DRAWING INSPIRATION from the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe, from which have developed the universal values of the inviolable and inalienable rights of the human person, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law,’;
(b) In the seventh, which shall become the eighth, recital, the words ‘of this Treaty’ shall be
replaced by ‘of this Treaty and of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,’;
(c) In the eleventh, which shall become the twelfth, recital, the words ‘of this Treaty’ shall be
replaced by ‘of this Treaty and of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,’.
U.S. Constitution Preamble
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Sphere: Related Content
no comments
RSS / trackback