Germany’s Stance on the EU Treaty Reform in the Years 2005–2009

Celem badawczym pracy jest rekonstrukcja wpływu Niemiec na reformę ustrojową Unii Europejskiej dokonaną w traktacie lizbońskim z 13 grudnia 2007 r. Autor formułuje hipotezę badawczą, że traktat lizboński znacząco wzmocnił pozycję Niemiec w Unii. Ograniczenie prawa weta państw członkowskich oraz radykalne wzmocnienie metody wspólnotowej w Unii dokonane w tym traktacie zamiast jeszcze bardziej związać Niemcy z UE, stworzyły potencjalne przesłanki nawet do ich dominacji w Unii.

Brexit and EU Treaty Reform

The chapter argues that Brexit compels the EU institutions and the Member States to engage in constitutional change at EU level. Several provisions of the EU treaties and quasi-constitutional EU norms will need to be amended to adapt to the reality of a Union of twenty-seven. The revision of these legal norms, however, may provide an opportunity to discuss radical changes to the EU constitutional system—a prospect that had been discussed during the euro-crisis, and in the context of the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the Rome Treaties Treaty reform in the EU has been mixed, and there are many obstacles toward a new constitutional settlement in Europe. Nevertheless, the growing calls for a multispeed Europe signal a credible alternative: after Brexit, integration by a sub-group of states remains a distinctive possibility in case the efforts to reform the EU constitutional system should falter got idiosyncratic national reasons.

The Lisbon Treaty and the Accession of Turkey to the European Union

On December 13, 2007, the Member States of the European Union (EU) signed in Lisbon a treaty amending the founding Treaties of the EU. After a troubled ratification process, due to the adverse outcome of a national referendum in Ireland, the Lisbon Treaty finally entered into force on December 1, 2009, defining a new trajectory for the EU integration process. The present article addresses the possible implications of the recent EU treaty reform to the accession of Turkey to the EU. To that end, I propose an analysis of the modifications introduced in the institutional framework of the Union and I inquire whether the legal change at this level is capable of influencing the attitude of the current Member States concerning the accession of Turkey to the EU.