EPTConsolidating EU treaties and building the modern structure of EU
The Lisbon Treaty is a comprehensive work setting out some relatively specific rules for how EU should work.
It consists of the Treaty of the European Union - which consolidates the treaties on judicial and foreign and security cooperation, Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union - which replaces the European Community in the Maastricht treaty, along with Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
In the Treaty of the European Union and contrary to the Maastricht treaty and the constitution, the formulations of the ambitions are more modest and limited in scope in most areas. IE. “Citizenship of the Union shall be in addition to and not replace national citizenship” and a few more caveats before “...the progressive framing of a common defense policy that might lead to a common defense”. However, most of the provisions are about the cooperation, including adding a “High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy”. It also defines the difference between the Council (ministers of governments in EU) and European Council (Presidents and prime ministers). Furthermore it adds two provisions to amend the treaty to make it less necessary to write new treaties.
In the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union it is far more explicitly mentioned what competences are at EU level, what is national and what is a joint matter. It furthermore adds several provisions to increase transparency and data protection. The European Parliaments control over the commission has been slightly improved to include choosing the president and approving the commissions strategy.
There is a significant change in the councils way of working where need for a qualified majority is changed to be less restrictive, from April 2017, with the possibility of using the new procedure from November 2014. Another temporary diversion from the rules is the change of maximum number of parliamentarians to 750 (The president doesn't count as a parliamentarian in this number). There are 765 at the moment, but the new distribution will take away 1 parliamentarian from 12 of the countries and 3 Germans in the 2011 amendment. A more permanent solution to the number of parliamentarians is scheduled to be concluded in 2015.
Annexed to the treaties are 37 protocols with special procedures for specific fields and/or countries. Those are the recognized exceptions for the normal rules.
The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union is what it says. It contains provisions like “No one shall be condemned to the death penalty, or executed” and “Everyone has the right to respect for his or her right to privacy and family life, home and communications” among other less controversial statements.
Sources:
http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/official-journal-of-the-european-union-c-326-26.10.2012-pbFXAC12326/?CatalogCategoryID=wJSep2Ix7TUAAAEwhSwlaWl7 (These are the 3 most important European treaties in effect at the moment with several extra features. Very informative and far more objective than the homepage of The Lisbon Treaty...)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20130308IPR06302/html/EP-seats-after-2014-elections-no-member-state-to-lose-more-than-one-MEP
