On European Union's Transition towards Lisbon Treaty

It is difficult to miss the point that the multi-year drama over the approval of the Lisbon treaty by the member-states of the European Union was more about a collision of the badly understood institutional change of the EU and the popular perception of what this involves for each member country in terms of its positioning within the larger structure of relations. Indubitably, the EU gains it its overall influence in internal and external affairs through the very fact of becoming better governed and coordinated that the election of its president and foreign minister only weakly signifies. The effects of the change will be seen only later when the reorganized and still reforming itself EU commences on a track of transformation that has taken a coal and steel agreement as its starting point. It is clear that any offers of state-like symbols for the EU meets with stiff resistance yet. However, the Lisbon treaty by preserving the institutional moorings of the constitutional agrrement proffered earlier on for the approval by the EU's nations still ensures the forward momentum for the further institutionalization of the EU as a single actor capable of concerted course of action, be it internally or externally. Consequently, it should raise the stakes for closer cross-border cooperation within the Union, for the benefits of such coalition building would have immediate impact for accumulation of power within the from now on more effective and influential EU.