The Community is dead, long live the Union! Consequences for external relations

(BRUSSELS2) This is what one could say a bailiff solemnly on December 1, the day of the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon. This effectively makes the "European Community" disappear and leaves only the European Union in its place, which, as a result, acquires full "legal personality" (1). After the disappearance of the "Common Market", of the "European Coal and Steel Community", a new symbol of "Dad's Europe" - the Europe of the 1950s - is disappearing.

A delicate legal change

This change has a first consequence: it will very quickly have to be made known to all the partners with whom the European Community has signed an international agreement. Which is, in fact, a succession between two international organizations. Several hundred agreements are concerned. Simple in appearance, this provision conceals a real difficulty, of a practical and legal nature: it is necessary to avoid any interruption in the application of international agreements, in the rights and obligations to which the EC found itself committed. But such information can only be done when the process of ratification of the Lisbon Treaty is closed.

Handy find

The solution found by the clever lawyers of the Council: all " notifications should be made after the deposit of the last instrument of ratification but before the entry into force of the Treaty “, according to the note which was distributed to the delegations of the Member States. So between November 13 (Jan Fisher, the Czech Prime Minister, affirmed that he would carry out this formality directly in Rome, next Friday) and November 30 (the Treaty entering into force, according to the provisions listed on the "1st of the following month the deposit of the last instrument of ratification", therefore on December 1. A standard letter of information from the States or organizations with which the EC is a party has been adopted.

Indirect consequence for the ESDP

It should be noted that this change does not directly concern most of the agreements made with third States for ESDP operations (association of third States with EU operations or missions, SOFA force protection or SOMA mission agreement, suspect transfer agreement - for the Atalanta operation), these having already been signed on behalf of the European Union. On the other hand, it concerns all the agreements or support mechanisms negotiated by the European Commission (development, humanitarian aid, economic partnership, etc.) and "founding" agreements such as those signed with the ACP countries (African Caribbean Pacific developing countries) or with the WTO (World Trade Organization). Ultimately, it will facilitate the negotiation of certain agreements, since there will only be one legal personality for the European structure.

(1) Much has been said about this legal personality, the "novation" of the Lisbon Treaty. In my view, innovation is much less important than it seems and comes more from rationalization and reinforcement than from upheaval. The EU has already signed international agreements as such (in particular for the ESDP).