The European Parliament has adopted four resolutions on the impact of the Treaty of Lisbon on May 7th 2009. The election of the new Commission, extending the powers and budgetary affairs and justice in the EU, and relations between national parliaments and the European, are among the issues highlighted in the resolutions.

MEPs welcome the fact that, with a few exceptions, the new Lisbon Treaty would place the European Parliament on an equal footing with the Council as a lawmaker in areas where this has not been case so far, notably in setting the EU budget (the EP would enjoy full parity), agriculture policy and justice and home affairs.

European Parliament and National Parliaments

The European Parliament also welcomed the new rights national parliaments would gain if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified by all Member States. MEPs approved a report expressing their support for the new procedure to enhance national parliament's role in the EU decision-making system that would come into force if the ratification procedure of the Lisbon Treaty is successfully concluded.

National parliaments would, first of all, gain a new right to be informed on, inter alia, the evaluation of policies conducted in the area of freedom, security and justice, proposals to amend the treaties and new candidate countries' applications to join the Union. Members of national parliaments would also acquire rights to control Europol and Eurojust, together with the European Parliament, and be involved in the conventions dealing with Treaty changes.

EP's right to object: showing an "Orange card"

National parliaments would gain the right to object to a proposal, by using so-called "orange cards", if they felt the subsidiarity principle had been breached (e.g. that a given result could be better attained by action at national rather than EU level).
 
In addition, a national parliament could seek to remedy an infringement of the subsidiarity principle by bringing an action before the Court of Justice, if allowed by national law.

European Citizens Initiative

In case the Lisbon Treaty enters into force, the Commission should put forward proposal to adopt the European citizens' initiative with no delay, says the European Parliament. The Treaty of Lisbon would introduce the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), whereby EU citizens can collect one million signatures, from a significant number of Member States, to ask the Commission to submit a proposal on any matters of competence of the Union.

According to MEPs, a citizens’ initiative should be admissible if concerns an EU competence and it is not contrary to the general principles of the EU. MEPs also agree that it should not take more then two months since the submission of the ECI for the Commission to decide on its admissibility.  Registrations could be rejected only on legal grounds and not on grounds of political expediency, says the approved text.