Lisbon Treaty ahoy
Over lunch and in the afternoon it was back to more familiar territory; a meeting of the enlarged Presidency of the Committee, primarily to discuss three important political issues. The first is the Committee’s reactions to the pending implementation of the Lisbon Treaty (1 December!). The Presidents and Vice-Presidents discussed a whole nexus of related considerations; rules changes, changes to procedures and processes, changing behaviour towards other institutions. The second topic was a contribution to the emerging new Commission’s reflections about its five year programme. Here, the Committee has already set out its stall through its Programme for Europe, adopted in March already. But as President Mario Sepi pointed out, once the new Commission is installed there will be a brief window of opportunity for insisting that the views of organised civil society be properly taken into account and the Committee must grasp that opportunity. The third subject was the Committee’s draft contribution to the work of the reflection group, presided over by Felipe Gonzalez, about the medium-term future of Europe. On all three topics there were lively discussions, discussions that will be continued at the next meeting of the Committee’s Bureau on 24 November.
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