THE PUBLIC INSTITUTION OF LOBBY IN THE TREATY ON THE FUNCTIONING OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Abstract

The Treaty of Lisbon comes with considerable gains by recognizing the European Union as a legal personality which must be assumed by all its signatories. The Treaty brings unexpected opportunities for the active involvement of citizens and civil society, through representation, in the European Union’s decision-making process. The compulsory new legal obligation to observe the provisions and values of the Treaty comes with the ex-ante political control tool of national parliaments supplemented with ex-post judicial control. The newly brought opportunities for the civil society to be actively involved in establishing the European Union’s agenda have developed, being backed up by the principle of subsidiarity. It brings provisions on the democratic functioning of the Union by delimiting competences, introducing control procedures and legal obligation for respect of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the Union. This article is devoted to the identification and subsequent analysis of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union towards the permissiveness of lobbying, as a public institution, acting through the principles of participatory democracy.

Keywords

• treaty of lisbon
• subsidiarity
• decision making process
• ex-ante & ex-post control
• participatory democracy
• public institution of lobbying