EU_ presidency

·         On June 30, 2008 France took over the rotating presidency of European Union from Slovenia.

·         French President Nicolas Sarkozy said "something is not right" with the European Union

·         France has set out plans on immigration, the environment, agriculture and defence for its six months at the helm.

·         Sarkozy said his priority would be to get all the other EU states to approve the treaty and then see what could be done.

·         The treaty cannot come into effect until it has been approved by all 27 member states.

·         The document is meant to streamline EU decision-making following enlargement of the bloc.

·         It is also meant to create a new EU president and foreign affairs chief, appointments which France is supposed to oversee at the end of its tenure.

·         A big question mark hangs over the future of the Lisbon Treaty - the set of institutional reforms aimed at streamlining the work of the enlarged European Union.

·         The treaty was rejected by Irish voters in a referendum on 12 June 2008 and, under EU rules, it cannot enter into force if any of the 27 member states fails to ratify it.

·         Since then, the Czechs have suspended their parliamentary ratification vote pending a constitutional court ruling, and ratification by the UK parliament is being delayed until a court rules on a legal challenge.

·         The treaty, signed in Lisbon in December 2007, was drawn up to replace the draft European constitution, which was thrown out by voters in France and the Netherlands in 2005.

·         Hungary was the first of 18 countries to approve the treaty in parliament.

·         The Republic of Ireland was the only member state to hold a referendum on the treaty.

·         According to an Irish Supreme Court ruling in 1987, any major amendment to an EU treaty entails an amendment to the constitution - and that in turn requires a referendum.

Mission IAS’2009

LISBON TREATY PROGRESS

·         Approved by parliament: Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, UK

·         Defeated by referendum: Irish Republic

·         Challenges: Legal objections in Czech Republic

·         No firm date: Belgium, Cyprus, Netherlands (held up by referendum proposal), Italy (new government), Spain (new government), Sweden

·         The first enlargement of EU took place in 1973 with Denmark, Ireland, UK joining it

·         Then in 1981it was Greece

·         In 1986 –Portugal and Spain joined EU

·         In 1995 -Austria, Finland Sweden joined EU

·         On May 1, 2004 ten countries joined the European Union (EU)—eight of the formerly Communist Central and East European (CEE) countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia) plus Cyprus and Malta.

o        This is the largest expansion in the history of the EU and will bring profound changes to Europe.

·         Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, Estonia, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania,  Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Austria,  Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia,  Finland, Sweden, United Kingdom

·         On January 1, 2007 Romania and Bulgaria joined European Union, 17 years after the fall of Communism.

·         With their accession, the EU now has 27 members and half a billion people, and stretches as far east as the Black Sea.