Lithuanian parliament ratifies Lisbon Treaty
BNS
The Lithuanian parliament ratified Thursday the Lisbon Treaty, also known as European Union's (EU) Reforms Treaty.
The treaty was supported by 83 of Lithuania's 141 lawmakers, while five were against and 23 abstained.
Heads-of-state of EU member countries signed the Lisbon Treaty last December, and it should come into effect as of beginning of 2009, seeing that it is ratified by all EU member states.
The EU's Lisbon Treaty is a replacement of the Constitution for Europe which lacked the support of Europeans. The EU had faced a crisis after voters from France and the Netherlands rejected the Constitution for Europe during public referendums in 2005.
Lithuania was the first EU member to ratify the earlier Constitution for Europe. Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas says that the Lisbon Treaty contains more than 90 percent of provisions of the Constitution for Europe.
The new treaty is to empower implementation of EU's institutional reform following accession of another 12 Eastern and Central European nations during the past two stages of expansion.
Among other things, the Lisbon Treaty reduces the number of members of the European Parliament from 785 to 750 (excluding the chairman), with the number of mandates held by individual countries ranging between six and 96.
Also, the treaty cancels the veto right - currently a "no" vote of any EU member blocks agreements.
Starting 2014, a new procedure for calculation of qualified majority of votes will be introduced. It will be based on the principle of dual majority - a decision will be adopted on approval of at least 55 percent of countries representing at least 65 percent of EU citizens. In the 2014-2017 period, member-states will be able to request ballot under the system used before the year 2014.
Another important aspect of the Lisbon treaty is that countries will have an opportunity to terminate membership in the EU without any obligations because no breakaway mechanism is in place until now.
The Lisbon Treaty for the first time in the EU history contains a provision of solidarity of all member-states in the solution of energy matters.
The provision is of utmost importance to Lithuania, which together with its two Baltic neighbors, is often referred to as an "energy isle" because of absence of electricity or gas links with other EU members and full dependence on energy resources of Russia. Reduction of the dependence level is one of Lithuania's foreign policy priorities, therefore, Lithuania aims for a unified EU energy policy.
08-05-2008
This publication in full or in part may not be reproduced and/or distributed in any form by mass media and/or internet means without prior written permission of JSC “BNS”.
