The EU Enters a New Era with the Treaty of Lisbon

The Treaty of Lisbon has come into effect Tuesday. It's widely believed that the treaty will help to streamline decision-making within the European Union and give the EU greater influence in world affairs.

Our reporter Zheng Chenguang has the details.

The Lisbon Treaty has formally come into force after eight years of controversy and debate over the future shape of the European Union.

Speaking at the Press conference Tuesday in Beijng, Mikael Lindstrom the Swedish Ambassador says the new Lisbon Treaty is an important step forward to the process of consolidating and broadening Europe.

"Leaders of European Union realized that we need to change the course of history of Europe, we need to gain a new approach."

Mikael explained that the new Treaty increases powers for the European Commission, European Parliament and the European Court of Justice, in the areas like justice and home affairs.

The new treaty contains many of the changes in the draft constitution which was signed in 2004. For example, the tenure for a politician chosen to be president of the European Council lasts two-and-a-half years, replacing the current system where countries take turns being president for six months.

Serge Abou, the EU Ambassador says at present the EU bloc has 27 member states compared to the 6 countries at the beginning. There are now about 1.5 billion citizens living in Europe. He says these facts have called for a more powerful position of the EU in the world.

"We have very high responsibility for our European Union. So we need more easy institutions and make it easy to decide, we need to be more democratic, so that is why more open parliaments are to be involved. Less veto rights, more permanency in our institution. All of that I think will give us more visibility, more continuity, and more efficiency. "

Officials attending the press conference also touched upon Sino-EU relations.

The 12th China-EU Summit concluded in the eastern city of Nanjing on Monday.

Serge Abou hails the summit as very successful in discussing many urgent issues, such as the measures to cope with the climate change.

"We need a more friendly partnership with China, because we need to work together with China to improve our relations for the states of our citizens. We have our solutions of diplomatic issues like the financial crisis, climate change, and classification of nuclear weapons."

When asked about China's recent announcement on the emission cuts target, Poul Skytte Christoffersen, Danish Ambassador says China and the EU should make joint efforts on the climate issues.

"It's our aim to reach an ambition to fight against climate challenge in Copenhagen. We believe that the Chinese government has put forward its goals; The negotiation right now has entered a very tough phase, so at this stage it is impossible to give a specific announcement on the Chinese announcement finally, but we welcome very much to see Premier Wen in Copenhagen."

EU officials also expressed the hope that China and EU can expand their scope for cooperation in more global issues.

Zheng Chenguang, CRI news.