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The Treaty of Lisbon will define to a great extent the development of the European Union, Georgi Pirinski stated at the opening of the Conference, entitled “Treaty of Lisbon – the citizens, the parliaments, the Union”
19/03/2008
The Treaty of Lisbon, signed at the last intergovernmental Conference will define to a great extent the development of the European Union, Chairman Pirinski stated at the opening of the Conference “Treaty of Lisbon –the citizens, the parliaments, the Union”.

The Forum held on 19 March 20, 2008 was hosted by the National Assembly, where Gergana Gruncharova, Minister on European Affairs and Meglena Kuneva, European Commissioner for Consumer Protection delivered speeches.

In his welcoming address to the conference Georgi Pirinski mentioned that it is more than a year now since Bulgaria became member of the European Union and at present many Bulgarians are asking themselves at least three questions – what does it mean from the point of view of their rights the full membership of Bulgaria in the European Union, how can we influence the life of the Union and what are the current developments of EU and what should we expect from being members. The Conference represents an effort to clarify how the Treaty of Lisbon solves the issues in regard to the functioning of the European Union on the three levels – citizen, country, Union.
The idea of the present Conference according to Chairman Pirinski is to find the answer as to whether the Treaty of Lisbon leads us to a more binding union in Europe and if the answer would be positive to what extent.

Georgi Pirinski shared with the participants that the National Assembly is undertaking the discussions of a Ratification Bill on the Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community on 21 March 2008.

Gergana Gruncharova, European Affairs Minister, stressed that the Treaty of Lisbon can mostly be defined as aiming at an institutional reform, better communication with citizens and more effective ways of decision making.
Those were the three keys towards the understanding of the Lisbon Treaty that we with Chairman Pirinski underscored when submitting the Ratification Bill on 6 February 2008. The debate on the Treaty is obliged to give to the society an opportunity to find its prospects and to convince it that Europe is more a Citizen’s Union than a Common market, said Mrs. Gruncharova.

The European Commissioner for Consumer Protection, Meglena Kuneva expressed her satisfaction that Bulgaria will be the sixth member country to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon.

From the citizens point of view the Treaty will stimulate the democratization, the transparency and the clear division of powers in the European Union. This document will reaffirm the common values and make the Union more efficient, added Meglena Kuneva.
The main topics of the Conference were “CHARTER OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION” and “THE ROLE OF THE NATIONAL PARLIAMENTS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION”. Lecturers on the topics were Enrique Krespo, Member of the European Parliament from the European Socialists Party group, Alexander Arabadagiev, Judge in the European Court of Justice, Emilia Drumeva, Judge in the Constitutional Court of Bulgaria, Fernando de Melo, Head Directorate G in the General Secretariat of the European Commission.
The Forum was attended by MPs and members of the European Parliament from Bulgaria, magistrates and experts on European Law and Human Rights.
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