On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome in 2007, the British historian Timothy Garton Ash went so far as to launch a website with a view to recover a shared political narrative of the project of European integration.(1) His critique was underlined and corroborated by Giles Merritt who postulated in the Autumn Issue of Europe’s World that the EU not only needs a new narrative for its own citizens, but also a clear and universally understandable message for world opinion.(2) Seen from within, this conclusion appears to be valid. From a perspective of international law, however, it may be argued that the Lisbon Treaty contains sufficient elements to provide the EU with a new and fascinating story.
The purpose of the present essay is to demonstrate that the Lisbon Treaty paves the way for describing the European Union with a new legal term as a Union of Citizens and Member States. At the same time, it is feasible to portray the EU from a point of view of political theory as an emerging democracy. In this approach the main difference between the former European Communities (EC) and the present European Union (EU) lies in the fact that the EC were limited to economic co-operation, whereas the EU is a political entity, which aspires to be a democracy of its own. The Lisbon Treaty signifies a major development in this respect as it founds the functioning of the EU upon the principle of representative democracy, while it simultaneously emphasises the sovereignty of the member states. Rather than resulting in the creation of a federal State, the process of European integration has led to the emergence of a new kind of polity with a distinct form of democracy. The essence of this polity is that the EU not only forms a Union of sovereign democratic states, but also constitutes a democracy of its own.
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1) www.europeanstory.net
2) Why the EU badly needs a new political narrative, in Europe’s World, Autumn 2010, p 6-10