The Jean Monnet Project “Constitutional Prerequisites for the Future of the European
Union” at the University of Erfurt (Dr. Robert Böttner) and the Department for EU Law at
the Pázmány Peter Catholic University in Budapest (Prof. Dr. Petra Láncos) are
organizing a conference on the state of play of the European Union 15 years after the
Lisbon reform came into force, contemplating achievements and the need for possible
future treaty amendments. The conference will take place on March 19-20, 2024 at
Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences.
The Treaty of Lisbon, the latest major reform of European primary law, entered into
force in December 2009. Adopting the substance of the failed Constitutional Treaty, the
Lisbon reform has introduced a number of innovations aimed at streamlining the work
of the Union, while making it more democratic. The amendments sought to take
account of the big bang Eastern enlargement, i.e. the increased number of players
within the multilevel system. With several accession negotiations still on-going, a new
adaptation of the Union’s founding treaties seems inevitable.
Over the past fifteen years, the Union faced several internal and external challenges
that tested its resilience, but also revealed shortcomings, be it the asynchronicity
evident in economic and monetary integration, the shortcomings in the Common
European Asylum System or the challenges in protecting its values internally. The Union
and the Member States tackled these issues primarily by implementing reforms and
new instruments on the level of secondary law or by concluding additional international
agreements.
The recent Conference on the Future of Europe as a joint initiative of the European
Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Commission for a citizens-led
forum presented a final report including multiple proposals for a reform of the
institutional and policy aspects of the Union. The European Parliament has used this as
a starting point to initiate a treaty amendment procedure with a long list of suggestions
(2022/2051(INL)).

Program