With the future Treaty of Lisbon, the end of one cycle, the beginning of another?

(BRUSSELS2) The Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) which ends on 19 October with a Treaty that can be called Lisbon Treaty " East " HISTORY in more than one sense.

The end of communities

It puts an end to more than fifteen years of discussion on political Europe and the reform of institutions. A debate started during the making of the Maastricht Treaty and always renewed from IGC to IGC (the famous "left-over"). Symbolically, the European Communities disappear. With the Treaty renamed " functioning of the European Union », this term disappears, in fact, in favor of " the European Union ".

This IGC also coincides with the end of the last phase of enlargement to the countries of " the other side of the wall », Romania and Bulgaria having been the last of the countries to join the Union at the beginning of January. It will still be necessary to "swallow" the integration of countries from the former Yugoslavia. This is above all a political and pacification problem on the continent.

Admittedly, the mandate given to this Intergovernmental Conference may have seemed a bit obscure and complex. That was - let's face it - his main objective. How else can we bring together Eurosceptics and federalists, supporters of Yes and No to the Constitution, without weaving this smokescreen. All the talent of the politicians and legal experts, who worked on this text, consisted in making very discreet the fact that the proposed text looks like two drops of water to that of the draft Constitution. " Better ».

The end of an illusion

The best thing is this rebalancing of objectives, this protocol on services of general interest - which must not be neglected and the importance of which will be verified over the years - it is a new legal basis for solidarity energy. It is also the removal of all symbols and appearances of a "Super State". Of course, the stated desire, the original will of Europe was to bring Europeans together. This was reaffirmed. But was it really to live in a single frame, a single mould. The concept " the United States for Europe be the best framework and the best model one could dream of? And, above all, was it possible to put into practice?

The usefulness of this IGC was therefore to put an end to certain illusions which had arisen with the draft European Constitution. The work carried out by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's team was certainly useful, but a bit megalomaniac and had one main flaw: forgetting the reality of States. The concept of a European federation which was valid for five or six countries in 1950 or 1980 is no longer a model today. In the meantime, the Berlin Wall has fallen. And Europe has both reunified – and not “enlarged” as is so often mentioned – and diversified. This reunification and this diversification (ideological, economic, philosophical) are a richness but also have a price: to review some of our political conceptions, which are a little narrow.

A rediscovered, reunited Europe

The new Member States have a conception of the Union which is not automatically that of the founders, of an ever closer Union, which obliges them to give up their sovereignty. This is the new syncretism that Europe must achieve: to preserve each country's sovereignty, its flavor, its color while having more numerous and diversified common or community policies.

In this context, the original philosophy of Europe - à la Jean Monnet - retains all its power: policies built one after the other, allowing progress to be made in small steps, to move forward while remaining together. Allowing synergies without completely standardizing, such is the new challenge.

Thus the agricultural, transport, territorial cohesion policies, the internal market and the common currency keep their place, no offense to those who would like to destroy them. The area of ​​Freedom, Justice and Security will emerge strengthened, discreetly but surely. Research, energy, defense policies… could be put in place. Lastly, foreign, defense and security policies will find here the place they should have had for years, and particularly since 1990, when the Twelve then envisaged the establishment of a political Europe alongside a Economic and monetary union.

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)