Lisbon Treaty and a new EU hierarchy point to greater stability and a resurgent dynamism” by Stanley Crossick, published in the Beijing Review 24 December 2009.

“The year 2009 was a difficult one for the European Union (EU). The European Parliament elections, held in June, are always disruptive. The results were disappointing with a low turnout and many eurosceptics elected.

The uncertainty of the Lisbon Treaty’s coming into force was an overhanging cloud for most of the year. The obstacles to this were the legal process before the German Constitutional Court and two processes before the Czech Constitutional Court, the second Irish referendum in October and the refusal of the Czech President Vaclav Klaus to sign the ratification instrument. But all these issues were satisfactorily resolved and the new treaty came into force on December 1…”