ABSTRACT
After several years of controversy, all 27 EU member states finally ratified the Lisbon (Reform) Treaty in 2009 (see Box 3.1), thereby marking another important milestone in the institutional evolution of the Union. Throughout this period, public and political debate on the treaty, mirroring the development of its ill-fated predecessor the EU Constitution, tended to centre on the degree to which further national powers would be ceded to Brussels. Politicians and the populist press in member states such as the UK decried the treaty as an example par excellence of the ongoing federalization of the EU, citing its potentially negative consequences for national sovereignty. Far less attention at the time was paid to understanding its actual implications for key policy sectors such as the environment; crucially few
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The protracted development and ratification of the Lisbon Treaty were characterized by significant speculation, and indeed heated controversy, over its alleged impacts on EU politics, policy and governance. Several years on from its formal signing into EU law, precisely what changes did it introduce and what have been their consequences for the everyday practices of environmental policy? In this respect, this chapter focuses on the Lisbon Treaty measures that directly affected certain specific aspects of EU policy making, namely, the legal principles and objectives of EU policy; the allocation of competences between the EU and its member states; the EU institutions; more general policy-making procedures; and hopes for more participatory forms of democracy. Many of these changes are yet to become fully operational, but some have already strengthened the EU’s environmental powers, whereas others have weakened them. In summary, comme ci, comme ça – neither good nor bad.
