Europe is in need of a stronger political leadership

Abstract

When the Lisbon Treaty came into effect in December 2009, it was greeted with some relief for two reasons: firstly because a very difficult phase in the European Union’s “constitutional” development had been completed and secondly because the EU could finally shift its attention from internal matters to the wider world out there. The completion of this latest phase in EU treaty reform had been marred by many setbacks: firstly, the Constitutional Treaty had to be shelved after its rejection in France and the Netherlands. Then after an uncertain period of “reflection” or let us say quite backroom consultations, negotiations began which eventually led to the Lisbon Treaty which incorporated much of the Constitutional Treaty.