While a set of rules designed for 27 instead of 15 member states should help to increase efficiency, the ability of the European Union to speak with a single voice is something up for debate. The new High Representative, Catherine Ashton, is meant to strengthen coherence in terms of external action, though she will not decide a single European policy, which will continue to be based on the unanimous agreement of all 27 member states. In one sense the High Representative can be considered a ‘super ambassador’ for the EU, though just how political the office will come to be remains to be seen.

But what I am most interested in is the Union’s journey towards greater democracy and transparency and its attempts to bring ‘Europe’ closer to its citizens. In particular, the treaty’s attempt to increase participatory democracy will be very interesting to monitor. The Lisbon Treaty aims to give citizens a direct say in European matters through the introduction of a Citizens’ Initiative, “whereby one million citizens, from any number of member countries, will be able to ask the Commission to present a proposal in any of the EU’s areas of responsibility.” Importantly, the practical details of this initiative have not yet been decided upon and will only be discussed once the Lisbon Treaty comes into force (so I’m waiting with anticipation from now!).

The Citizens’ Initiative will be even more interesting in light of Switzerland’s referendum (citizen initiated) over the weekend in which 57% of voters approved a ban on the construction of Muslim Minarets. The referendum was held following the Swiss People’s Party’s (SVP) successful campaign to collect 100,000 signatures to hold a referendum on the issue. With a population of just over 7.5 million, this works out at a ration of 1/75. Now compare this with the population of the European Union, which will mean that a citizens’ initiative will require only 1/500 citizens to sign. These citizens’ initiatives will allow citizens to petition the European Commission to bring forward new policy proposals and while they do not appear to be binding there should be concern about the types of citizens’ initiatives that may be brought forward in the near future. With the rise of the BNP in the UK and the Geert Wilders phenomenon in The Netherlands, we should expect that the citizens’ initiative will open up a new door for far-right (far-left and whatever other extremist) groups to put pressure on the European Institutions – all in the name of democracy.

With only one million signatures required, I can only hope that the citizens’ initiative will not become the domain of extremist or nationalist views and pointlessness. I’ll keep holding my breath until the details emerge…