EU in brief" "
The Treaty of Nice came into force on 1st February. It was adopted in December 2000 after five days and five nights of marathon negotiation and only recently ratified by Ireland following a second referendum. The objective of the Treaty was the reform of the EU’s institutional architecture in such a way as to permit the Union to function in a harmonious manner after enlargement. However, the fact that the compromise reached in Nice sufficient to complete the membership process of the new candidates was only partial induced the governments of the 15 to set up the Convention on the future of Europe with the task of improving and completing the reforms undertaken by the Treaty. The innovations of the Treaty of Nice include: the adoption of the qualified majority vote in the Council for over forty sectors and the consequent reduction (considered insufficient by many) of unanimity and right to veto; the ‘weighting’ of the vote of the individual member states on the basis of more objective criteria of demographic representativeness; the revision of the number of Commissioners, according to the principle “one State, one Commissioner” up to a maximum of 27; the growth of the number of MEPs up to a maximum of 732 and the redistribution of seats at the national level. Moreover, in conformity with the Treaty, the Union was given specific functions in the campaign against social exclusion. Lastly, Nice laid the juridical foundations for reinforced cooperation, in other words the possibility to press forward in the implementation of policies or measures without the obligation for the participation of all member states.
