The European Union after Lisbon: An Increased ‘Closeness to Citizens' through Institutional Reform?

European integration will only be successful in the long term if Europe's citizens become more involved in the political decision making and legislative processes of the European Union. A not-so-negligent number of European citizens, many of whom are in Germany, complain that they are becoming subject to different laws stemming from Brussels. In light of the current removal of today's generation of younger Europeans from the terrible experiences of war and the historical notion of Europe as a ‘unique experiment in international understanding', the European Union must legitimate itself once again, especially if it still wants to ensure the approval of the people. Are decisions of the new European Union now taken as closely as possible to the citizens, as specifically provided in Article 1 Section 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU)? Will the new treaty obligations in fact succeed in filling citizens with a new European spirit? To begin, it is essential to know what is exactly meant by the principle of closeness to the citizens (I.). On this basis, two impulses can be noticed towards this connection in the Lisbon Treaty: the changes through institutional reform and through empowerment of the citizens by upgrading individual rights. However, institutional reform created the basis that allowed for the possibility of citizen empowerment to take place1. Nevertheless, this paper concentrates on the side of institutional reform through the Treaty of Lisbon (II.). Since the European Constitution failed in implementing the concept of a European Union legitimated by its "own" citizens and no further changing of the treaties is seen in near future, especially in light of the straining negotiation process, the principle of closeness to the citizens becomes possibly more important for the European Union.