Sejm after four years from the adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon

The article attempts to give a comprehensive analysis of the legal and parliamentary practice in Poland, made after four years from the adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon. The special focus is given to three issues: regulations of the so-called cooperation law, regulations of the Rules of Procedure of the Sejm for the Committee of the European Union and the practical aspects of proceedings of the EU legislative proposals in the Sejm. The starting point of the above analysis is protocol on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon, which impose on the EU institutions to directly inform national parliaments of the content of EU legislative proposals for which is provided to express an opinion. Therefore, the Lisbon’s Treaty confers on Polish parliament the power having the nature of a veto in relation to decision reducing sovereign rights of Poland as the one of the member states. However, the present role of the Sejm in the functioning of the EU depends on its ability to exert a real influence on the European policy conducting by the government, which is related with a possibility of concluding the political consensus on the national level. The author suggests that for supervision of the EU’s principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, not only greater activeness of Polish parliament, but also providing mechanisms for the enforcement of the members of the Council of Ministers of the political responsibility for their actions in the EU institutions, is required. Otherwise, the solutions adopted in the Treaty of Lisbon will not affect on the existing European policy way in Poland, which leads government.

A Few Remarks on the Institution of the European Citizens' Initiative in the European Union

The article includes a critical analysis of chosen aspects of the institution of the citizens’ initiative in the European Union. It was introduced to the legal system of the EU by the Treaty of Lisbon and by Regulation No 211/2011 of the European Parliament and the Council of 16 February 2011. The examined issue has not been discussed comprehensively in the legal literature yet. On the one hand, the author gives his assent about such elements of the citizens’ initiative in the EU as the minimum number of countries from which signatories must come and the minimum number of signatories from one Member State, i.e. issues which should be apparently the most controversial. On the other hand, in the main part of the study, the author tries to argue that the form and nature of the initiative should be assessed negatively. Unformulated form of the above-mentioned institution may lead to deformation or misinterpretation of citizens’ proposal by the European Commission. Furthermore, the indirect character of the citizens’ initiative entitled to state that we do not deal with a variety of “legislative initiative” but rather with a variety of “legislative inspiration”. To sum up, the author anticipates that the examined political institution will not contribute to solve the problem known as “democratic deficit” in the EU. His opinion is based on a general remark that without changing the actual, liberal model of European integration on the republican one, there are no prospects to ensure effective participation of EU citizens in public life.

Principle of supremacy of the European law in the view of the Lisbon Treaty

The purpose of this article is an attempt to analyze whether and what changes made admission of the Lisbon Treaty in meaning and usage the principle of Supremacy of the European Law. It is one of the most controversial issues in European Law and it’s being subject of numerous discussions and disputes for few decades. Article encloses how the principle of Supremacy of the European Law was expressed in the Lisbon Treaty and notes of the „deconstitutionalisation” process that appeared after fall the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. In this article the author also discussed the Declaration No 17 attached to the Lisbon Treaty and its meaning for establishment the principle of Supremacy of the European Law. The author also analyzed the previous jurispru dence of constitutional courts in EU member states, included the Polish Constitutional Tribunal, related to the principle of Supremacy of the European Law.

Wojciech Bogumił Jastrzębowski’s draft of a Constitution for Europe is a vision of an ideal European social order, whose foundation is to be found, inter alia, in the citizen’s universal right to freedom and independence, to diversity and individual identity, as well as the right to live in peace. It is thus highly apparent that a number of parallels exist between the alliance of nations postulated by Jastrzębowski and later forms of integration existing and still being developed in contemporary Europe. The aim of this article is to analyse and characterize the existing similarities, and also the most significant differences, between the monarchist vision of the European alliance of nations, as presented by the author of the Constitution for Europe, and the contemporary realisation of the idea of the unity of the continent.