EUobserver.com: EU leaders to sign up to new treaty - by Honor Mahony

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EU leaders to sign up to new treaty

EU leaders will fly to Lisbon today to sign up to a new treaty for the European Union, a ceremony that has almost been overshadowed by travel details and the British prime minister's agenda clash. The new set of rules for the European Union, some six years in the making, will be signed off at a monastery in the Portuguese capital at 11.30 this morning, officially turning the document into the Treaty of Lisbon.Its most visible innovations include a permanent president of the EU, an EU foreign minister, greater powers to the European Parliament and a legally binding citizens rights charter. In addition, it reduces the size of the European commission, allows for easier decision-making by changing voting rules - both from 2014 - and curbs the power of single member states to veto legislation. The treaty is designed to make the EU more effective on the world stage both by giving it a more coherent foreign policy and by allowing it to take decisions quickly.

Sixteen of the EU's 27 members will issue a statement saying that these symbols will "continue to express the sense of community of the people in the EU and their allegiance to it". It also backs the EU's motto – "united in diversity"– and the annual Europe Day on 9 May to celebrate the Union.

Note EU-Digest: The fact that Gordon Brown will keep his distance from a majority of European Union countries today by refusing to sign a declaration of support for the EU's flag, anthem and single currency is another sign that Britain does not belong in the EU because it has no real heart for its wellbeing. To others Brown's decision not to join 16 nations in signing the statement will be seen as an attempt to reassure British voters and Eurosceptic newspapers that he opposes further EU integration. Mr Brown has upset pro-Europeans and some fellow EU leaders because he will miss the signing ceremony for the new EU treaty in Lisbon today. Instead, he will answer questions from senior MPs before flying to Lisbon, arriving after the "family photograph" of EU leaders and in the middle of their working lunch. The Prime Minister, who will be the only EU leader absent from the ceremony, will sign the treaty on his own in the same room as the other leaders and will be filmed doing so. EU sources are accusing him of gesture politics and pandering to British Eurosceptics, who in turn have accused him of trying to hide his support for the treaty. "He has upset everyone without achieving anything," said one European Commission insider. William Hague, the Conservative shadow Foreign Secretary, said: "Gordon Brown has even managed to turn something as simple as signing the EU treaty into a national embarrassment. What will other EU leaders think of a Prime Minister who dithers for a week about whether he dares to be photographed putting pen to paper?"