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Łazowski, Adam; Blockmans, Steven --- "Introduction" [2016] ELECD 1059; in Lazowski, Adam; Blockmans, Steven (eds), "Research Handbook on EU Institutional Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 1

Book Title: Research Handbook on EU Institutional Law

Editor(s): Lazowski, Adam; Blockmans, Steven

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781782544739

Section Title: Introduction

Author(s): Łazowski, Adam; Blockmans, Steven

Number of pages: 10

Abstract/Description:

The Lisbon Treaty marks a watershed in the European integration process. With the ink still wet after having signed off on a decade of institutional reform negotiations, the EU was severely hit by the deepest global financial and economic crisis since the end of the Second World War. At the time, the European Union’s ‘obsession with restructuring its internal arrangements’ was famously compared to ‘rearranging the deck chairs of a sinking Titanic’. In view of the multiple challenges which have plagued the European Union since – the Greek debt crisis, an unstable neighbourhood, propelling waves of refugees, and the spectre of a British exit from the EU (‘Brexit’) – one wonders whether the EU's institutional reform still stands the test of time. Seven years after the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon and with no further treaty revision in sight, it is worth revisiting the existential call for EU reform made by the 2001 European Council Summit at Laeken in order to verify if the current institutional framework is fit for purpose. This is the overarching aim of this volume.