The European Union has a long way to go to achieve its ambition of turning its economic strength into greater political influence, even though it is about to implement reforms to give it more clout. The Czech president signed the EU's Lisbon treaty on Tuesday, completing ratification of a document creating a long-term president, enhancing the power of its foreign policy chief and making EU decision-making smoother. “This is very good news for the European Union. This means we can now go on at full speed with the Lisbon Treaty's implementation – in foreign policy first of all,” said Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, Poland's European affairs minister. But political analysts say internal divisions and a “small country complex” must be overcome if the bloc, which represents 27 countries and 495 million people, is to match the rise of emerging powers such as China after the global economic crisis. “If we can get our own act together, the rest of the world will take notice because we are a pretty big boy,” said Daniel Gros, Director of the Centre for European Policy Studies think tank in Brussels. But he added: “There is a lack of unity and a small country complex where leaders still think in national rather than global terms and are not willing to abdicate their responsibilities to an EU body which would not have these problems.” A further obstacle is the bloc's failure to speak with one voice in global bodies such as the International Monetary Fund, the Group of Eight industrialized countries and the Group of Twenty developed and emerging economies. Individual EU member states are reluctant to give up their seats in these prestigious groups to make way for a single EU representative, meaning the EU often appears disunited. Danger of irrelevance? Even though the treaty will now come into force in weeks, the EU has much to do to stop itself being further marginalized in the new world order following the global economic downturn. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said last week the treaty offered the EU a chance to strengthen its global role – but that it must renew its foreign policy. “I genuinely believe that unless Europe does so, we will find ... that a G2 informally, if not formally, emerges as the key decision making axis in the world – the US and China,” he told reporters at an EU meeting in Luxembourg. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has said Europe could become irrelevant if Europeans do not work together to fight the challenges posed by the financial crisis. Barroso, the head of the EU's executive, sees the Lisbon treaty as a big step in the right direction. But the difficulty securing Czech support for the charter has also underlined the Union's problems in presenting a united front to the world. The EU leaders have also been struggling to agree on who should fill the new post of president of the Council of EU leaders and the job description is vague. Much will depend on what kind of leader is appointed – a heavyweight statesman or a less established figure who leads by consensus. A high-profile candidate with global name recognition looks unlikely to get the job after former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's star faded. This prompted his successor, Gordon Brown, to warn Blair's opponents: “Get real”.
