Has the Laeken Declaration been fulfilled?
The recent attempts to reform the EU stem from the Laeken Declaration, adopted by prime ministers of all EU countries in 2001. It is a reference point that even Eurosceptics refer to, claiming that the Lisbon Treaty fails to carry out what Laeken demanded, or does so insufficiently. It is worth going back to this text to see what its aspirations were and whether they have been met.
The most frequently quoted part of the Laeken Declaration is the part where it is the most critical of the EU, where it says that many "citizens also feel that the Union is behaving too bureaucratically .national and regional differences frequently stem from history or tradition. They can be enriching. In other words, what citizens understand by 'good governance' is opening up fresh opportunities, not imposing further redtape. What they expect is more results, better responses to practical issues and not a European superstate or European institutions inveigling their way into every nook and cranny of life."
To counter such perceptions, Laeken says that, "The European institutions must be brought closer to its citizens. Citizens undoubtedly support the Union's broad aims, but they do not always see a connection between those goals and the Union's everyday action. They want the European institutions to be less unwieldy and rigid and, above all, more efficient and open."
Efficiency and openness are certainly two objectives of the Lisbon Treaty. Efficiency is the aim of such reforms as a longer (30-month instead of six-month) presidency of the European Council, a smaller European Commission, a wider scope for QMV, the merging of the two external representation posts, and so on. Openness has been addressed by providing for Council to meet in public when deliberating on EU legislation, the requirement to send all proposals first to national parliaments and to ensure no laws can be adopted without public debate in the European Parliament.
Laeken said that "Many also feel that the Union should involve itself more with their particular concerns, instead of intervening, in every detail, in matters by their nature better left to member states' and regions' elected representatives."
This has been addressed in two ways: through a better definition of (though no increase in) the EU's field of competence, with a stronger focus on matters such as climate change and the environment where it is particularly obvious that national action alone is insufficient, and through new mechanisms for controlling subsidiarity, to make sure that the EU only acts in so far as common action is beneficial and not where national action is adequate. On this, a new mechanism provides for national parliaments to trigger a review of any proposal threatening subsidiarity
Laeken goes on to say that some people see the EU "as a threat to their identity. More importantly, however, they feel that deals are all too often cut out of their sight and they want better democratic scrutiny... citizens are calling for a clear, open, effective, democratically controlled Community approach, developing a Europe which points the way ahead for the world."
So, what does the treaty do to respond to this demand for more democracy? Well, it provides that no European legislation can be adopted without first, examination by national parliaments, second, approval by the EU Council of Ministers (composed of national ministers from national governments accountable to those national parliaments) and third, approval of the European Parliament (composed of our directly elected MEPs). This is a level of scrutiny that exists in no other international organisation. Anyone genuinely worried about accountability should focus on NATO, the IMF, the WTO, the World Bank, the OECD and so on, which lack such accountability.
There is no doubt that the Lisbon Treaty addresses the questions raised in the Laeken Declaration. It brings forth progress on the issues raised, progress that might, arguable, have been more far-reaching in some cases, but in any case represents a significant improvement on the current treaties.