リスボン条約に至る機構改革と民主的正統性

抄録

The Lisbon treaty which has been described as a “reform treaty of EU” was signed on 13 December 2007, and after being ratified by all member states, came into force on 1 December 2009.
The purpose of this treaty was the institutional reform of the EU including the appointing of a President of the European Council to serve as the “face of the EU”. This paper raises some questions regarding how the EU will change with the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty.
The purpose of this study is to examine the importance of the treaty’s most innovative features: First, what might be the impact of the Lisbon Treaty’s institutional reform on European governance?
Second, what reforms are actually specified in the treaty and what difference will they make?
Third, what should be done to enhance democratic legitimacy in the EU? In other words, how should the features of this reform be viewed in the historical context of the EU?
We will also look at the kind of discussion held during the preparation of the treaty and consider how the design of institutional arrangements changed from “the Treaty of Nice” and “the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.”
In order to answer these questions, this paper focuses on the historical transformation of European governance, examining some problems involving democratic legitimacy with regard to Institutional Reform, based on the reality of European Integration, and the related trends in contemporary political integration theory.
Against the backdrop of the ongoing globalization of the international community, there is an ever-expanding range of fields in which advancing policies at the supranational level of the EU is the most effective approach for all member states.
Taking this truth to heart, under the Lisbon Treaty the EU is unifying the administration of its foreign relations and diplomacy, effectively raising the international presence of the Union as a whole.
We should point out that the new cooperation form of democracy and accountability exceeding borders in the EU, and the democratic legitimacy of the EU have been strengthened by the lengthy formation processes of the Lisbon treaty. The EU can only claim to have real significance if it is oriented towards a “citizen’s Europe,” with a civil society, and transparency is therefore crucial.