Lisbon Treaty - Day 2

The main criticism about the EU is that it is pretty undemocratic This is mainly because

• The Commission, you know the brain-trust which controls policy and alone has the power to initiate legislation, is completely unelected. This will not change under Lisbon.
  
• The Council (of ministers) which is one of the two legislative bodies meets in secret - this will not change under Lisbon.
  

The Eurpean Parliament, the place where politicians go to die, is being cast as the big winner from Lisbon. The Parliament is the only directly elected part of the EU, but its powers aren't terribly impressive. Basically the drill is, the Commissioners, those clever, unelected people such as Charlie McCreevy, propose new legislation, then the Parliament and the Council (I know I'm losing consciousness too) which is made up of ministers from national parliaments both must agree (codecision).

So the Parliaments powers are: propose amendments and say no. Not entirely stunning, but certainly not useless - afterall by simply refusing to sign-off the EU budget (due to massive fraud allegations) they forced the Santer Commission to resign. Try getting the Senate to do that.

Under Lisbon, the main change is that codecision is extended to most policy areas. Which means you might not want to be so flippant when next voting for your MEP. Do you really want Dana voting on energy policy? However, they still cannot propose legislation - so not ushering in a new democratic dawn.

Another change is that the Parliament gets to elect the President of the Commission (where the real power lies - the ability to make new laws). This is a good thing in terms of balancing power between elected and unelected officials.

There are some sops to making the EU more democratic. For example:

• A citizens initiative where 1Million citizens (v. Austin Powers) can petition the Commission to bring forward legislation on a particular issue (such as an immediate ban on Westlife) . What the Commission has to do at this point is undefined and this smells like a populist measure that was tacked on to make the treaty more touchy-feely.
  
• A role for the National Parliaments, not content making a mess of their own legislation, they now have the right to vent their spleens at EU legislative proposals.. If enough of them are against it then the Commission must review (that doesn't actually mean anything has to happen, the Commission can re-present exactly the same legislation, but they are required to say why the National Governments should mind their own business). Seems pretty toothless.
  

So overall if you were hoping that Lisbon was going to make the EU more democratic I'm afraid I don't have entirely good news for you. It does make it a little bit more democratic by extending the areas which the Parliament has oversight on, but this should be thought of as reform (with a small 'r').