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6 Persp. Bus. L.J. 1 (2017)

handle is hein.journals/perbularna6 and id is 1 raw text is: 



  THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONCEPTS OF THE REFORM TREATY (THE
                                      LISBON TREATY)

                                                        Associate professor Emilian CIONGARU1


        Abstract
        The Lisbon Treaty also known as the Reform Treaty provides only an amendment of the treaties considered as
fundamental, namely the Treaty on the European Union and the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union and is
the result of the constitutional process triggered by the Laeken Declaration adopted by the European Council. The Lisbon
Treaty is still built on the content of the European Constitution from which they eliminated the most controversial
provisions, first of all the title of Constitution that might produce concern and panic among the European Union
population through the symbolic power it contained, andfor Romania this new treaty was the first it signed in quality of
a Union member state. Even if does not bear the name of European Constitution, the Lisbon Treaty is a European
Constitution for the following reasons: first it is a Constitution because it gathers together most of the fundamental
elements of the Constitutional Treaty, even if it does not have the structure or the name thereof and second the treaties
after the Lisbon reform have become small constitutions from the operational viewpoint, they develop the functions of a
constitution, limit power and organize the operation of the organization.

        Keywords: constitutional concept; Lisbon Treaty; European Constitution; fundamental elements of
Constitutional Treaty.

JEL Classification: K10, K33.


        1. The historical evolution of the Lisbon Treaty-the Reform Treaty

        The Lisbon Treaty2, provides only an amendment of the treaties considered as fundamental,
namely the Treaty on the European Union and the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union
as the Treaties of Amsterdam and Nice did at their time. The Union is founded based on this Treaty -
in accordance with the principles of Treaty on the European Union and the Treaty on the functioning
of the Union. These two treaties together become then the de facto Constitution of the post-Lisbon
European Union.
        A new Union is in fact set up although the word constitution is not used. The Lisbon Treaty
is the result of the constitutional process triggered by the Laeken Declaration adopted by the European
Council3 in 15 December 2001 - The Laken Declaration on the future of the United Europe - and this
declaration became an ad-hoc agenda of the European Union reform by identifying the challenges the
European Union was going to answer as they were seen at the beginning of 2001 and whose answer
was going to be obtained through treaty revision. That is why the most adequate evaluation of the
reforms introduced by the Lisbon Treaty is the one obtained from the comparison thereof with the
Laeken Declaration.
        The chronology of events that led to the emergence of Lisbon Treaty starts in fact at Nice in
December 2000 when we may say that the process of constitutionalization of the European Union
began, when in the European Council they decided to carry out the general revision of all institutive
treaties having the adaptation of the European Union institutions to the already planned expansion
thereof as their main objective, and also expressing the need for a much more elaborate general debate
regarding the future of the Union.
        In the period February 2002 - July 2003, the Convention chaired by Valery Giscard d'Estaing
formulates the Draft Treaty instituting a Constitution for Europe, a treaty that was signed on October

1 Emilian Ciongaru - Bioterrra University - Bucharest; Associate researcher, Romanian Academy - Institute of Legal Research
Acad.Andrei Radulescu, emil ciongaruayahoo.com.
2 The treaty was signed on December 13, 2007 by the representatives of the 27 member states of the European Union and entered into
on December 1 2009. Romania ratified the Treaty of Lisbon by the Law no. 13/2008 (Official Gazette of Romania no. 107 on February
12, 2008).
3 G. Isaac and M. Blanquet. Droit communautaire gdntral, 8-6dition, Armand Colin, Dalloz, Paris, 2001 pp. 50 and next.

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