5.

Welcomes the fact that the new Treaty will strengthen the capacity of the Union's institutions to carry out their tasks more effectively, notably because: (a) the areas in which the governments meeting in the Council decide by qualified majority voting rather than by unanimity will increase substantially, thus enabling the Union of twenty-seven Member States to function in more areas without being blocked by vetoes; (b) a new system of double majority voting will facilitate the reaching of decisions in the Council; (c) the European Council will become a fully-fledged institution of the European Union, and its six-month rotating presidency will be replaced by a President elected by its members for a two-and-a-half-year term, thus allowing for more coherence in the preparation and continuity of its work; (d) the number of members of the Commission will be reduced, as of 2014, to 2/3 of the number of Member States, thus making it easier for the Commission to act, and making it even clearer that Commissioners are representatives of European interests and not of those of their countries of origin, while a rotation system will continue to ensure equal participation of all Member States; (e) the Union's visibility and capacity as a global actor will be significantly enhanced: — the Union's Foreign policy High Representative and the Commissioner for External Relations — two posts causing duplication and confusion — will be merged, creating a Vice President of the Commission/High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy who will chair the Foreign Affairs Council, and be able to speak for the Union on those subjects where the latter has a common position, thus ensuring more coherence in the external action of the Union; — there will be a single external action service composed of civil servants of the Commission and the Council and of the national diplomatic services, which can be established by the Council only with the assent of the Commission and having consulted Parliament; this external service will be headed by the Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative, should be attached to the Commission and is intended to ensure greater consistency in the development and implementation of the Union's foreign policy; — the Union's capacity to develop common structures in the field of security and defence policy will be reinforced, inter alia by the insertion of a clause providing for mutual aid and assistance in the event of armed aggression, thereby enhancing citizens' sense of security, while ensuring the necessary flexibility to cater for differing approaches of Member States to such matters; (f) the distinction between legislative and executive instruments will be clarified, and a new definition of delegated acts will make it possible to simplify and streamline the legislation of the Union; (g) the pillar structure is abandoned, allowing for unity of action in the different fields of activity of the Union with simplified mechanisms and instruments, although the specific nature of foreign and security policy implies specific procedures in these domains; (h) action in the area of freedom, security and justice will have more ambitious goals and more effective procedures, no longer using separate intergovernmental instruments and procedures, and will be subject to judicial review, thus promising tangible progress with regard to justice, security and immigration issues; (i) the Union's objectives and competences in the fields of climate change, children's rights, European Neighbourhood Policy, humanitarian aid, energy (including a reference in the Treaty to solidarity between Member States in this domain), space, research, tourism, sport, public health and civil protection are defined more clearly; common commercial policy is recognised as an exclusive competence of the Union; (j) for a number of other matters, it will become possible to apply more efficient methods of decision-making as soon as there is the political will to do so; (k) there is more room for flexible arrangements when not all Member States are willing or able to go ahead with certain policies at the same time;