A New Era for Europe

This is a period of great change in the European Union, but also one of great uncertainty. With the final accession of the Lisbon Treaty on 1st December much has changed to the structure and workings of the Union, but if we work carefully the threatened turmoil will be avoided. I remember Paddy Ashdown saying after the 2004 accessions (when 10 countries joined the EU) that what was needed was a period of deepening the Union rather than widening, and it seems as if the last decade has been consumed by institutional wrangling, but that time is now over. We must now walk together into a new era of European cooperation, one where the principle focus is on working to improve the life of our citizens.

The rules that underlie the EU have changed over the years, but its structure has generally stayed the same. It was a structure built for a much smaller Union and, despite a number of changes with new accessions, it didn't grow into an effective or coherent body. Missing was the setting up of a legal entity, a single, streamlined structure that would work with the EU's current size. The first try to solving this problem was the Constitutional Treaty. However, as we all know, its launch and sales campaign failed miserably. It was thrown out by disillusioned and mis-informed voters and was replaced with the Lisbon Treaty. The new rules are being tried out tentatively. "Únder Lisbon" is the new catch phrase; as with any change of rules, MEPs will take a little time to settle into a new way of working, learning when to watch out and when to act. But there is a palpable relief that it has succeeded, we now can work as a true Union rather than as has sometimes happened, a collection of 27 Heads of states doing their bit and everyone coping with the results.

The appointment of the new Commission was the first test in this new era of European parliamentary democracy. Parliamentary consent is required for the appointment of the President of the Commission, as with the college of Commissioners. Many of the Commissioners-Designate have been impressive throughout their hearings that have been held by the MEPs, and I'm confident we will have a strong Commission over the next five years. They had little over a month to get familiarised with their portfolios before facing very detailed questions for three hours. It's a gruelling task for them, but the responsibility of their jobs demands it. The will of democracy has also been exercised, as the Bulgarian nominee for the Commission was rejected by the Parliament and she subsequently withdrew. Technically we can only approve the college as a whole, but it was clear that the nominee hadn't got a grasp of her portfolio and certain allegations were made against her financial probity. If only we had a similar system for ministers in the UK. Only the Prime Minister has the right to appoint, with no public hearing and no chance for democratically elected representatives to reject an unsuitable appointee. I feel that often we have Ministers without the slightest interest in their portfolios!

Addressing the EU's failure to talk with one voice was one of the priorities of Lisbon. Failure to do this has plagued the EU, as we've struggled to impose ourselves on the international scene. Over the last year we have faced the collapse of the world financial system and the ever increasing threat of climate change, and our approach to both these crises would have been stronger if we'd spoken with one voice. Under Lisbon we now have one person to coordinate external action: the High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Baroness Ashton. Mr Kissinger´s successors finally know who to call when they need to speak to Europe.

The EU's performance at the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change illustrated what happens when we fail to act together. The expectations were great and people from all over the world were willing their representatives to come up with a comprehensive plan to address the warming of the planet's atmosphere. Copenhagen was clearly a miserable failure, and what was also clear was why the European Union failed to achieve its potential. The heads of some member states jostled for seats around the table, and Europe ended up with a muddled and divided face. It was a lost opportunity. The European Union was not recognised or given its negotiating weight.

"Under Lisbon", (those words again) this would not have happened. The Commission and the High Representative in the future will speak on behalf of the Union and last week we saw the first evidence of how much more effective this will be. In Kathy Ashton´s statement on the disaster in Haiti we heard how she had been able to call an extraordinary meeting of the Council to plan the Union´s relief effort. Already the single planning is adding to that of the member states and not competing with it.

So we enter a new phase in the Union, there is a huge amount of goodwill and energy to make it work. Only time will tell if we live up to the high expectations we have set. But let us hope this new era is a time for concentrating not on how we will work for our constituents, but on actually doing the work our constituents sent us to Brussels to do.