Abstract

On the fiftieth anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, the Berlin Declaration declared the period of reflection on the failed Treaty to Establish a Constitution for Europe to be at an end. To replace it, a reform treaty was signed in Lisbon in December of 2007, and newspapers from Dublin to Beijing reported on the communique issued by EU leaders in Brussels that stated ,,The Lisbon Treaty provides the Union with a stable and lasting institutional framework. We expect no change in the foreseeable future, so that the Union will be able to fully concentrate on addressing the concrete challenges ahead, including globalisation and climate change ..."2 In choosing the problems to highlight in the press release for what still might constitute the legal framework for Europe in the foreseeable future, why did these leaders state, and why did these journalists repeat these two issues together - globalisation and climate change? ,,Globalisation" and the various processes it describes as such have already been thoroughly discussed in legal literature many times over.