Legal Instruments in the Reform Treaty – Simplified?

Abstract

This article deals with the new provisions devoted to EU legal instruments proposed by the Constitutional Treaty and the Reform Treaty. In the first part, the changes proposed by the Constitutional Treaty and the Reform Treaty are explained in relation to the present organisation of legal instruments. Besides describing the proposed changes, an attempt is made to identify the motives behind them. In the second part, the proposed changes are assessed as to whether they represent simplifications that would make it easier for European citizens to understand the EU system. The article looks at whether different aspects of the proposed changes, such as decreasing the number of legal instruments, changing their names, or introducing a distinction between legislative and non-legislative acts, represent simplifications. The overall conclusion which follows is that the Reform Treaty does not simplify EU legal acts for EU citizens, even if there are certain changes which might be called simplifications.

Keywords

• reform treaty
• eu legal instruments
• european citizens
• simplification