Institutions matter. The way in which the EU member-states take decisions in the Council of Ministers, and way the Council interacts with the European Commission, Parliament and Court of Justice, determine whether the EU is effective. Without strong institutions and functioning decision-making rules, the EU cannot fulfill its objectives, be it liberalising energy markets, fighting cross-border crime or negotiating trade deals with China.

The Treaty of Lisbon that the EU countries agreed in October 2007 will help to make the enlarged EU institutions work better. It will (if ratified) introduce simpler, clearer rules for decision-making; consolidate the EU’s foreign policy machinery; abolish the rotating presidency; and make it easier for the EU to help fight terrorism, crime and illegal immigration.

Although the Treaty of Lisbon is relatively less ambitious than previous treaties, it is the outcome of five years of negotiations. The previous attempt at institutional reform, through the EU constitutional treaty, ended in a political crisis as Dutch and French voters rejected it in national referendums. The difficulty of agreeing a treaty among 27 countries will discourage EU governments from trying it again any time soon. Instead, they could embark on new projects in say, economic integration or defence co-operation by assembling smaller groups of interested countries.

The CER looks past the traditional debates about inter-governmental co-operation versus a more federal EU. We propose changes that will make the EU work better. These can be pragmatic, such as our suggestions to improve EU foreign policy making. Or they can be radical, such as our proposals for a new institutional set-up to help the EU fight climate change.