To what extent is there a need for the European Union in 2010?

Résumé du document

With the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty in December 2009, the ‘European Union begins 2010 with a new look', according to VOA News. The European Union has strengthened its institutions, with a new ‘president of the European Union'; Herman Von Rompuy and a new High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton. Moreover, we got ‘the extensions of the availability of QMV in the Council, the strengthening of the powers of the EP […] and the consolidation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.' The Lisbon Strategy that accompanied the Treaty is based on three pillars: the economic pillar, the social pillar and the environmental pillar.

However, a majority of European citizens see the EU as a threat (in matters of employment, economy etc) or as an unnecessary organization, and the low turnouts at the EP elections and the rejection of the Constitutional Treaty by France and the Netherlands in 2005 highlight this fact. But according to Dominique Robert, the European Parliament spokesman, 'there are a lot of issues which would not exist in a positive way if Europe did not exist.'

In a way, asking the question ‘To what extent is there a real need for the European Union in 2010' boils down to asking in which way there is a real need for deepening European integration in 2010. On the one hand, the European Union will be required for backing the three pillars of the Lisbon Strategy but on the other hand, we can assume that the European Integration has to improve in some areas if we want the EU to be necessary.