国际英语新闻：EU strengthened after Lisbon Treaty: experts

PRAGUE, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- The changes instituted in European Union (EU) as a result of the Lisbon Treaty have created conditions for improving the efficiency of 27-member bloc.

Such was the main idea from an international conference held on Friday in Czech capital Prague to mark first anniversary of Lisbon Treaty entering into force.

All institutions of the EU were strengthened, and there exist dynamics leading to improving of EU's position, Czech first deputy foreign minister Jiri Schneider said at the conference.

"The new rules helped improve the atmosphere of negotiations," said Stefan Fule, Czech Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy. "Limiting of the veto power led to positive changes of negotiation tactics."

However, the commissioner also stressed that the treaty is just an framework that needs to be filled by new content.

"The loser was the rotating presidency," Richard Corbett, member of the cabinet of European Council President Van Rompuy said, adding that such change led to improvement of the work, as formerly the heads of the council had only six months time to finish their tasks and they could be replaced during their terms as a result of domestic elections.

Corbett pointed out there exist some misunderstanding in the world who is the real head of EU, European Commission President Jos Manuel Barroso or European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.

"One day there will be single presidency," Corbett predicted.

The main challenge standing before EU is the need to solve new problems, especially the solution of monetary problems of some member countries, according to some experts who attended the conference.

"A year ago, we could not expect that a new crisis will appear soon," Jiri Schneider said.

"Nobody expected we would have to learn so much," Stefan Fule added.

The international conference, titled "The First year of the Lisbon Treaty -- New Rules for the European Chessboard," attracted more than 100 officials and experts respectively from the institutions of the EU, and think tanks, including EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy.