The solidarity clause: one of the most unacknowledged innovations of the Lisbon Treaty. The European Parliament debates its implementation but also its ambiguities
Largely unknown, often mixed up with the mutual defence clause, the solidarity clause is one of the innovations introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007. One year after the adoption by the Council of a decision containing the arrangements for the implementations of the clause, a joint hearing was organized between the SEDE and LIBE committees of the European Parliament in order to hear the opinion of experts and to discuss the actual implementation of this clause and of the Council decision’s arrangements. However, also the ambiguities of the provisions emerged in the debate, opening the possibility for misuse. (suite…)