AD chairperson Harry Vassallo, commenting on the Lisbon Treaty, reiterated that AD believed that stronger cooperation between European Union countries should lead to a better quality of life for all citizens, including Maltese citizens, and added that there were positive and negative aspects in the new treaty, the most negative being the lack of participation of European citizens in the process.

Otherwise, he said, there were various positive developments which should make the Union more democratic in some areas and increase the importance of social issues in the Union’s decisions.

The positive aspects or achievements, when compared to the Nice Treaty, include:.

•Values of the Union have been clarified and reference to a “free and undistorted competition”, as was written in the draft Constitution, has been removed;

•Charter of Fundamental Rights becomes legally binding;

•The legal personality of the EU, which allows it to sign the European Convention on Human Rights and other treaties has been recognised;

•Formal recognition of citizenship of the EU (in addition to that of member states);

•Citizens’ initiative that enhances participatory democracy (Petition with one million signatures);

•National Parliaments will be better involved in the EU decision making process (subsidiarity principle), giving them the right to show the Commission the “Orange Card”;

•Qualified majority voting becomes the general rule in the council;

•New President of European Council (for 2.5 years), even if election procedure is seriously flawed (elected just by Heads of State), wider participation in this election would have been preferable;

•Expansion of competencies of High Representative on Foreign Affairs as foreseen in first draft of constitutional convention; this is a good development which gives the EU more clout on the international stage, till now dominated completely by the USA, Russia and China;

•Further development of structured cooperation in the area of defence while maintaining member states’ autonomy according to their constitutional status, allowing neutral countries to preserve their neutrality;

• Social market economy and full employment become Union objectives – this will strengthen social solidarity in the EU;

•Exit clause is included so that any country can leave the EU when it decides to do so.

The negative aspects include:

•Lisbon treaty is not a result of a democratic and transparent process;

•Removal of European symbols: flag, anthem and motto, preventing closer emotional attachment of citizens to EU;

•Constitution should be ratified in a pan-EU referendum by a dual majority.

We believe that the new treaty should have been subject to an EU-wide referendum held on the same day in all countries. It is very important that such an important treaty is accepted by the majority of EU citizens, in the majority of EU countries.