[FR] The Treaty of Lisbon: revival of a treaty or a treaty for revival?

The agreement on the content of a new ‘Reform Treaty’ reached at the informal summit in Lisbon on 18 and 19 October is good news for the future of the European Union. Provided that this Lisbon Treaty is ratified in all 27 EU countries – and that is by no means a foregone conclusion – it could mark the end of a long period of uncertainty about the future of the European institutions in an enlarged Europe, which has now lasted for almost 12 years. It could also signal a new dynamic for Europe, which has been stalled since the French and Dutch rejections of the Constitutional Treaty in spring 2005.

Many advances have been retained in the Lisbon Treaty, and as such it is an important text. At the same time, it contains provisions whose implementation raises a number of questions. Furthermore, certain changes compared to the Constitutional Treaty reveal a state of mind that is not necessarily conducive to major demonstrations of common political will. Consequently, is this merely the relaunch of a Treaty that was essential to get the EU out of the impasse, or does this Treaty herald a genuine new start, enabling the EU to define, together with European citizens, the common project it wishes to pursue in the globalised world of the 21st century? Only the course of the next few years will tell, but let us be optimistic and give the benefit of the doubt to the second hypothesis.