New faces in top EU ranks and implications for Turkey

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The Lisbon Treaty, meant to introduce the much-needed reform to improve the institutions, structuring and functioning of the European Union, came into effect on December 1, 2009. A detailed overview of the Treaty, the changes it introduces and the implications for the future of the Union are published by TEPAV simultaneously with this note1. Among other issues, a significant feature of the Treaty, which was an attempt to recover certain tenets of a stillborn EU Constitution, was devising and manning (sic) two new posts: a president of the European Council and a high representative for EU’s foreign affairs and security policy, i.e. a quasi-foreign minister of the Union. The implications of the Lisbon Treaty for Turkey and the Turkish accession may likely go beyond the institutional and the formal changes involved. Hence, a glimpse of the new posts created by the Treaty and the figures who occupy them, as well as the change of the Enlargement Commissioner is warranted.