(a)

the adoption of all European Union legislation will be subject to a level of parliamentary scrutiny that exists in no other supranational or international structure:

(b)

the President of the Commission will be elected by the European Parliament, on a proposal of the European Council, taking into account the elections to the European Parliament;

(c)

the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy will be appointed by both the European Council and the President of the Commission and, as a member of the Commission, must undergo the same investiture procedure in Parliament as any other Commissioner: as a Vice-President of the Commission, the High Representative will be subject to the same rules as any other Commissioner as regards his or her investiture and the performance of his or her duties;

(d)

a new, simpler and more democratic budgetary procedure with a single reading is established: the distinction between compulsory and non-compulsory expenditure is abolished, thus ensuring full parity between Parliament and Council as regards approval of the whole annual budget, while Parliament is also granted the right of consent to the legally binding Multiannual Financial Framework;

(e)

democratic control in relation to the legislative powers delegated to the Commission will be reinforced through a new system of supervision in which the European Parliament or the Council may either call back Commission decisions or revoke the delegation of such powers;

(f)

the consent of the European Parliament will be required for the approval of a wide range of international agreements signed by the Union, including those concerning domains subject to the ordinary legislative procedure in the internal sphere of the Union;

(g)

the Council will meet in public when deliberating or voting on draft legislative acts, thus allowing citizens to see how their governments act in the Council;

(h)

agencies, notably Europol and Eurojust, will be subject to greater parliamentary scrutiny;

(i)

the Committee of the Regions will be able to bring cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union, its members' term of office will be increased to five years and its relations with the European Parliament will be defined more clearly;

(j)

the procedure for revising the Treaties will, in future, be more open and democratic, as the European Parliament will also acquire the power to submit proposals to that end, the scrutiny of any proposed revision must be carried out by a Convention which will include representatives of national parliaments and of the European Parliament, unless Parliament agrees that this is not necessary, while new simplified revision procedures are introduced for amending, by unanimous decision, certain provisions of the Treaty, with the approval of the national parliaments;

(a)

the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, setting out a complete list of up-to-date civil, political, economic and social rights, will become legally binding; it will give the citizens of the Union legal certainty, ensuring that all provisions of EU law, and all action taken by the EU institutions or based on EU law, will have to comply with those standards, while respecting the principle of subsidiarity;

(b)

the Union is to apply to accede to the European Convention on Human Rights, which will make the Union subject to the same external review as regards the obligation to respect citizens' rights, as its Member States;

(c)

new provisions will facilitate participation by citizens and representative associations of civil society in the deliberations of the Union, building on their important contribution to the preparation of the Treaty; dialogue with social partners and dialogue with churches, religious communities and non-confessional organisations will be encouraged;

(d)

the introduction of an EU citizens' initiative will enable citizens to submit proposals on matters where they consider that a legal act of the Union is required for the purpose of implementing the Treaties;

(e)

judicial protection of citizens will be enhanced, since the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice will extend to matters relating to freedom, security and justice as well as to acts of the European Council, the European Central Bank and agencies of the Union, while provision will also be made to facilitate access for natural and legal persons to proceedings of the Court;

(a)

a clear delimitation of the competences of the Union vis-à-vis Member States is established, under the principle that all competences that are not conferred on the Union by the Treaties remain with the Member States;

(b)

there is a greater emphasis on policies that visibly benefit citizens: there are new provisions of general application concerning the promotion of a high level of employment, the guarantee of adequate social protection, the fight against social exclusion, high levels of education, training and health, the elimination of all kinds of discrimination and the promotion of equality between women and men; new provisions enhance the promotion of sustainable development and protection of the environment, including fighting climate change, and the respect of services of general interest; economic, social and territorial cohesion is reaffirmed as an objective of the Union;

(c)

the confusion between the ‘European Community’ and ‘European Union’ will end as the European Union becomes one single legal entity and structure;

(d)

a solidarity clause between Member States provides citizens with an expectation of receiving support from all parts of the Union in the event of a terrorist attack or a natural or man-made disaster;

(e)

it confirms the specificity of the institutional organisation of the Union, to which Member States entrust certain of their competences that they consider to be better exercised through common mechanisms, while providing, for the avoidance of any doubts, sufficient guarantees that the Union will not become a centralised all-powerful superstate, such as:

(a)

the areas in which the governments meeting in the Council decide by qualified majority voting rather than by unanimity will increase substantially, thus enabling the Union of twenty-seven Member States to function in more areas without being blocked by vetoes;

(b)

a new system of double majority voting will facilitate the reaching of decisions in the Council;

(c)

the European Council will become a fully-fledged institution of the European Union, and its six-month rotating presidency will be replaced by a President elected by its members for a two-and-a-half-year term, thus allowing for more coherence in the preparation and continuity of its work;

(d)

the number of members of the Commission will be reduced, as of 2014, to 2/3 of the number of Member States, thus making it easier for the Commission to act, and making it even clearer that Commissioners are representatives of European interests and not of those of their countries of origin, while a rotation system will continue to ensure equal participation of all Member States;

(e)

the Union's visibility and capacity as a global actor will be significantly enhanced:

(f)

the distinction between legislative and executive instruments will be clarified, and a new definition of delegated acts will make it possible to simplify and streamline the legislation of the Union;

(g)

the pillar structure is abandoned, allowing for unity of action in the different fields of activity of the Union with simplified mechanisms and instruments, although the specific nature of foreign and security policy implies specific procedures in these domains;

(h)

action in the area of freedom, security and justice will have more ambitious goals and more effective procedures, no longer using separate intergovernmental instruments and procedures, and will be subject to judicial review, thus promising tangible progress with regard to justice, security and immigration issues;

(i)

the Union's objectives and competences in the fields of climate change, children's rights, European Neighbourhood Policy, humanitarian aid, energy (including a reference in the Treaty to solidarity between Member States in this domain), space, research, tourism, sport, public health and civil protection are defined more clearly; common commercial policy is recognised as an exclusive competence of the Union;

(j)

for a number of other matters, it will become possible to apply more efficient methods of decision-making as soon as there is the political will to do so;

(k)

there is more room for flexible arrangements when not all Member States are willing or able to go ahead with certain policies at the same time;

—

abandon the constitutional approach and certain of its features, such as the notion of a Union based on the will of its citizens and Member States, a single and structured text, the clearer terminology to designate legislative instruments, the anchoring in the Treaty of the flag and the anthem and the use of the title ‘Foreign Minister’ instead of ‘High Representative’;

—

postpone the implementation of important elements of the new Treaty, such as the entry into force of the new voting system in the Council (accompanied by special provisions for postponing votes known as the ‘Ioannina compromise’), and add restrictive mechanisms like ‘emergency brakes’ to the ordinary legislative procedure in some areas of competence;

—

incorporate into the Treaty measures specific to particular Member States, such as the extension of the opt-in arrangements in relation to cooperation in police and criminal matters for two Member States, the protocol limiting the effect of the Charter on the domestic law of two Member States and the extra parliamentary seat attributed to a Member State in derogation of the principle of degressive proportionality;

—

modify the wording of several passages of the Treaty, or of the protocols and declarations annexed to it, entailing an unjustified shift to a negative tone, which gives an impression of mistrust vis-à-vis the Union and its institutions and thus sends a wrong signal to the public;