The adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon will mean important institutional changes which will have an impact on the scope of tasks of the Presidency and the way in which they are implemented. This reform means an essential quality change in the leadership system of the EU. The most significant modifications introduce:
1. The Office of the Permanent President of the European Council
2. The Office of the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy.
The amendments to the Treaty of Lisbon will affect several very important aspects of the objectives pursued by the Presidency:
1. chairing the work of the European Council, EU Council and its ancillary bodies,
2. representing the EU in the international arena,
3. cooperation in the trio framework;
The Office of the Permanent President of the European Council will replace the rotating Presidency in the European Council. The competences of the President of the European Council will comprise chairing the European Council and coordinating its work, and ensuring the preparation and continuity of work in the European Council. The President will cooperate with the President of the European Commission and, based on the work of the General Affairs Council, will strive to ensure that consistency and consensus in the European Council is reached. His duty will be also to submit the report to the European Parliament from each meeting of the European Council.
As a consequence of the adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon, the Polish Presidency will not constitute a level of the European Council and will focus on groups of the Council of the European Union and its ancillary bodies, with the exception of the Foreign Affairs Council. This change has a significant impact on the practical functioning of the Polish Presidency in 2011. In view of the establishment of the Office of the Permanent President of the European Council, the involvement of the Prime Minister in the success of the Presidency will be less than in the current system because he or she will no longer be responsible for negotiations at European Council level and the final conclusions. However, his or her involvement will be indispensable for the coordination of the Polish Presidency as a whole and the consistency of the actions of ministers presiding over the Council’s sectoral framework, the effects of which will be passed on at European Council level as input on the conclusions.
A formula which ensures a permanent presence of the Prime Minister in this process will be necessary. The adoption of the Treaty will mean the need to cooperate more closely with the Permanent President of the European Council from the beginning of his or her term of office in order to ensure the effective functioning of the Polish Presidency and in view of the decisions taken within the European Council, with particular attention to the priorities of the Polish Presidency.
Pursuant to the provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon, a High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy is also to be appointed. Being at the same time a vice - President of the European Commission, responsible for internal relations and the “coordination of other external activities of the Union”, he or she will conduct the foreign policy of the Union and represent the EU externally. Moreover, the High Representative will chair the Foreign Affairs Council, established on the basis of the division made in the Treaty of Lisbon of the current General Affairs and External Relations Council. This is a major modification of the present system where all the groups of the EU Council are chaired by the representative at ministerial level of the state holding the Presidency in the term concerned. In accordance with existing practice, the High Representative was relatively rarely given a political mandate to interact with third countries.
Frequently, its own prerogatives in this respect were jealously guarded by the Presidency. In view of the evolution of the role of the Presidency, the most significant change is the provision on the exclusion of the External Affairs Council from the rotating Presidency system and entrusting to the High Representative the task of presiding over it and coordinating the work of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Member States. This change will have both a practical and political significance for the rotating Presidency and thus the preparation process itself. It will have an impact on the limitation of the substantive scope of the issues "served" by the Presidency in the Council as well as very practical issues, such as fewer meetings, dossiers and experts required among other things, in addition to the diminished role of the Poland’s foreign diplomatic missions. However, the Treaty does not provide any regulation, as in current treaties, on the question of chairing the working groups of the Council. Therefore, the preparations of the Polish Presidency should concentrate on ensuring the service of the current number of working groups according to the provisions in force. In the case of the entrance into force of the Treaty of Lisbon this number may be limited.
An important innovation is the idea provided by the Treaty of Lisbon of combining the Presidency into a group of three states. This would mean that the influence on the Presidency is prolonged beyond the six-month term. The establishment of the group Presidency means that three Member States (trio) over an 18-month period, hold the Presidency and support each other on the basis of a common programme. The main innovation of the Treaty on this point is the introduction of the possibility of adopting alternative arrangements among the trio states concerning the division of work in the group during the 18-month period. As regards the obligations of the Member States in the trio, the Treaty indicates that other members of the group are obliged to support the presiding state in all its duties in accordance with the common programme. The consequence of these new provisions will be even closer cooperation than before with the partner states during the whole 18-month period.
In referring to the programme of EU work, this innovation of the Treaty of Lisbon puts more pressure on inter-institutional agreement, thus recognizing the aspirations of the European Parliament to co-decide on the EU agenda and granting new competences to the European Commission and the European Council. At this current stage many questions on this point remain open and will require clarification before the Treaty of Lisbon comes into force. Therefore, in the context of the Presidency, the most important thing is that Poland ensures that the programming documents, which will be drafted according to the provisions of the Treaty, include the priority issues for our Presidency.