The Lisbon Treaty: Non-discrimination and citizenship
Tags: Citizenship, Council of Ministers, equality, EU, European Commission, European Commissioner, European Council, European Parliament, European Union, Fundamental Rights, Ireland, Non-discrimination, referendum, The Lisbon Treaty, The Treaty of Lisbon, Treaty on European Union, Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union [Previous posts on The Lisbon Treaty can be located here.]
Greetings, lesbians and friends! Following on from yesterday’s post which dealt with the initial parts of the Lisbon Treaty, today we’re on to the next section entitled, “Non-Discrimination and Citizenship of the Union.”
Thanks be to be-jebus, this section is significantly shorter than yesterday’s. Relief all-’round, I’m sure..
Moving along swiftly. This section begins with a prohibition on discrimination on the grounds of nationality, a principle which has been a fundamental part of EU rules for years, as a key element to allow for successful operation of the EU’s internal market. The European Parliament and Council may jointly adopt rules to prohibit such discrimination.
The next Article that’s inserted to this part of existing EU treaties by Lisbon is one that in fact already exists and which allows the Council of ministers, with the consent of the European Parliament, to make laws and take action “to combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation.” Notwithstanding this commitment, the Article allows “incentive measures” to be adopted – excluding any harmonisation of the laws of member states – and the Lisbon Treaty amends the Article to allow the incentive measures to be adopted by way of laws made jointly by the European Parliament and the Council.
The next Article in the existing treaties deals with citizenship. As the EU treaties currently state (without Lisbon being passed, that is), citizenship of the EU exists, and every national of an EU member state is a citizen of the EU. EU citizenship, however, does not replace national citizenship, and the Lisbon Treaty amends the Article so that is states that EU citizenship is “additional to” national citizenship. (Without the Lisbon Treaty, the treaties state that EU citizenship “complements” national citizenship.)
A new paragraph is added to the Article by Lisbon, which states that the rights 
and duties of the EU apply to any citizen of the EU, and that EU citizens have the benefit of: freedom of movement within the EU; the right to vote and stand as candidates in EU or local elections where they are residing in the EU; the right, when they are outside of the EU, to avail of the protection of the embassy or consulate of any EU member state; the right to communicate with the European Parliament, the European Ombudsman and the institutions and advisory bodies of the EU in any of the “Treaty languages” and receive a reply in the same language.
The next Article in the existing treaties deals with allowing for EU laws to be made in order to allow citizens of the EU to move and reside freely within the EU, and the Lisbon Treaty amends the Article so that the European Parliament and Council jointly adopt such laws as may be needed.
A new paragraph is added to that Article, which allows the Council of ministers to adopt “measures concerning social security or social protection,” for the purposes of allowing or facilitating freedom of movement within the EU, according to special law-making provisions (more of which in a later post) and after consulting the European Parliament.
The next Article is left unchanged, and the following Article (which deals with situations where EU citizens abroad can avail of the protection of embassies, etc., of other EU member states) is amended by the Lisbon Treaty to add a new paragraph. The new paragraph states that the Council of ministers after consulting with the European Parliament can adopt laws “establishing the coordination and cooperation measures necessary to facilitate such protection.”
In the next existing Article, and new first paragraph is inserted by Lisbon to allow the Council and the European Parliament to jointly adopt measures setting down the procedures and conditions required for “a citizens’ initiative”. More detail on the citizens’ initiative is provided in the amendment by Lisbon to the Treaty on European Union (the first of the two existing core EU treaties), which I will deal with later, I promise!
Finally in this part of the existing treaties, Lisbon amends the final paragraph of the next Article to make reference to EU citizens’ rights (listed here earlier), and to state that any provisions to strengthen or add to the rights of EU citizens will enter into force after they have been approved by member states in accordance with the constitutional requirements of each member state (so, in Ireland, that would entail holding a referendum).
And we’re done! Thanks be to feck. Stay toooned for more!
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Nice post, it’s good to see somebody trying to Lisbon in terms that people can understand! If Lisbon was discussed in as clear terms as this more of the time, perhaps we’d be able to have more of a serious debate about it?
One thing that I think Lisbon stops short of doing (from what I can tell) is putting in place proper mechanisms for forcing Member States to abide by the internal market’s principles. At the moment it’s much too easy for Member States to simply get away with protectionist policies, at the detriment of the customer. Take betting as an example – punters should be able to go online and place bets in other EU countries if they can get a better deal, but some EU Member States stop that from happening. Of course they should be allowed to regulate gambling but surely it is nothing short of DISCRIMINATORY to having special rules against foreign companies? If you want more info on this, there is a website http://www.right2bet.net. If EU leaders don’t have the political will to act, it’s up to the people themselves!
JB