Chapter 3 Answer guidance

Q4) How has the EU’s treaty base changed since the Treaty of Lisbon came into force?

See section 3.9

• Treaty of Lisbon came into force on 1 December 2009.
• First European Council President was former Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy. Former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk replaced van Rompuy in 2014.
• Baroness Catherine Ashton, a British Commissioner with little EU experience, was appointed as the first High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
• The above appointments indicate that such postholders were largely intended to be the creatures of the European Council rather than political leaders in their own right. Nonetheless, the Eurozone Crisis meant that the European Council President role has developed beyond what was originally envisaged.
• Extension of the Ordinary Legislative Procedure to most European Union policy areas resulted in a recalibration of relations between the EP, the European Commission, and the European Council, in favour of the former.
• The Citizens Initiative was finally launched in 2012, allowing citizens to petition the EP. This along with logistical difficulties with the role of national parliaments to ‘orange card’ European Commission proposals has done little to address the democratic deficit of the EU.
• Ahead of the 2014 EP elections, the political groupings in the Parliament exploited their enhanced role in the appointment of the Commission President by identifying Spitzenkandidats.