The old Article 7 from the the consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union:
1. On a reasoned proposal by one third of the Member States, by the European Parliament or by the Commission, the Council, acting by a majority of four fifths of its members after obtaining the assent of the European Parliament, may determine that there is a clear risk of a serious breach by a Member State of principles mentioned in Article 6(1), and address appropriate recommendations to that State. Before making such a determination, the Council shall hear the Member State in question and, acting in accordance with the same procedure, may call on independent persons to submit within a reasonable time limit a report on the situation in the Member State in question. The Council shall regularly verify that the grounds on which such a determination was made continue to apply.
2. The Council, meeting in the composition of the Heads of State or Government and acting by unanimity on a proposal by one third of the Member States or by the Commission and after obtaining the assent of the European Parliament, may determine the existence of a serious and persistent breach by a Member State of principles mentioned in Article 6(1), after inviting the government of the Member State in question to submit its observations.
3. Where a determination under paragraph 2 has been made, the Council, acting by a qualified majority, may decide to suspend certain of the rights deriving from the application of this Treaty to the Member State in question, including the voting rights of the representative of the government of that Member State in the Council. In doing so, the Council shall take into account the possible consequences of such a suspension on the rights and obligations of natural and legal persons. The obligations of the Member State in question under this Treaty shall in any case continue to be binding on that State.
4. The Council, acting by a qualified majority, may decide subsequently to vary or revoke measures taken under paragraph 3 in response to changes in the situation which led to their being imposed.
5. For the purposes of this Article, the Council shall act without taking into account the vote of the representative of the government of the Member State in question. Abstentions by members present in person or represented shall not prevent the adoption of decisions referred to in paragraph 2. A qualified majority shall be defined as the same proportion of the weighted votes of the members of the Council concerned as laid down in Article 205(2) of the Treaty establishing the European Community. This paragraph shall also apply in the event of voting rights being suspended pursuant to paragraph 3.
6. For the purposes of paragraphs 1 and 2, the European Parliament shall act by a two-thirds majority of the votes cast, representing a majority of its Members.
The article 7 changes (in italic) on the base of the Draft version of the Reform Treaty:
Article 7 - Suspension of certain rights resulting from Union membership
1. On a reasoned proposal by one third of the Member States, by the European Parliament or by the Commission, the Council, acting by a majority of four fifths of its members after obtaining the consent of the European Parliament, may determine that there is a clear risk of a serious breach by a Member State of the values referred to in Article [I-2]. Before making such a determination, the Council shall hear the Member State in question and may address recommendations to it, acting in accordance with the same procedure. The Council shall regularly verify that the grounds on which such a determination was made continue to apply.
2. The European Council, acting by unanimity on a proposal by one third of the Member States or by the Commission and after obtaining the consent of the European Parliament, may determine the existence of a serious and persistent breach by a Member State of the values referred to in Article [I-2], after inviting the Member State in question to submit its observations.
3. Where a determination under paragraph 2 has been made, the Council, acting by a qualified majority, may decide to suspend certain of the rights deriving from the application of this Treaty to the Member State in question, including the voting rights of the representative of the government of that Member State in the Council. In doing so, the Council shall take into account the possible consequences of such a suspension on the rights and obligations of natural and legal persons. The obligations of the Member State in question under this Treaty shall in any case continue to be binding on that State.
4. The Council, acting by a qualified majority, may decide subsequently to vary or revoke measures taken under paragraph 3 in response to changes in the situation which led to their being imposed.
5. The voting arrangements applying to the European Parliament, the European Council and the Council for the purposes of this Article are laid down in Article [309] of the Treaty on the Functioning of the Union.
This article seems to be very strong, at least on paper. In theory if any Member State seriously violated EU’s values (human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities, and also pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men), then it could temporarily loose some rights deriving from the EU membership while maintaining all the obligations.
The article seems not having been changed too much. The major change is that the violation is no more related to the basic rights as described in the Article 6 but to the values described in the new Article 2. This could have two opposite effects: it can weak the procedure because of the genericness of Union’s values, or it can make it easier to be invoked just because the same vagueness, indeed a wider range of degrees of action can fit the label of violation of the EU’s values.
We have seen here that the new treaty aims to define clearly how the relations between the Union and the Member States have to be, and we have already seen the first formulation of the principle of conferral.
Now let’s see how old articles 4, 5 and 6 will be replaced by the new articles 5 and 6.
Article 4
The European Council shall provide the Union with the necessary impetus for its development and shall define the general political guidelines thereof.
The European Council shall bring together the Heads of State or Government of the Member States and the President of the Commission. They shall be assisted by the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the Member States and by a Member of the Commission.
The European Council shall meet at least twice a year, under the chairmanship of the Head of State or Government of the Member State which holds the Presidency of the Council.
The European Council shall submit to the European Parliament a report after each of its meetings and a yearly written report on the progress achieved by the Union.
Article 5
The European Parliament, the Council, the Commission, the Court of Justice and the Court of Auditors shall exercise their powers under the conditions and for the purposes provided for, on the one hand, by the provisions of the Treaties establishing the European Communities and of the subsequent Treaties and Acts modifying and supplementing them and, on the other hand, by the other provisions of this Treaty.
Article 6
1. The Union is founded on the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law, principles which are common to the Member States.
2. The Union shall respect fundamental rights, as guaranteed by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms signed in Rome on 4 November 1950 and as they result from the constitutional traditions common to the Member States, as general principles of Community law.
3. The Union shall respect the national identities of its Member States.
4. The Union shall provide itself with the means necessary to attain its objectives and carry through its policies.
The Article 4 is renumbered 5 and replaced by the following one, the Article 5 is completely repealed and the 6 is changed as you can read.
Article 5 - Fundamental principles relating to competences
1. The limits of Union competences are governed by the principle of conferral. The use of Union competences is governed by the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.
2. Under the principle of conferral, the Union shall act only within the limits of the competences conferred upon it by the Member States in the Treaties to attain the objectives set out therein. Competences not conferred upon the Union in the Treaties remain with the Member States.
3. Under the principle of subsidiarity, in areas which do not fall within its exclusive competence, the Union shall act only if and insofar as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, either at central level or at regional and local level, but can rather, by reason of the scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved at Union level.
The institutions of the Union shall apply the principle of subsidiarity as laid down in the Protocol on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. National Parliaments shall ensure compliance with that principle in accordance with the procedure set out in that Protocol.4. Under the principle of proportionality, the content and form of Union action shall not exceed what is necessary to achieve the objectives of the Treaties.
The institutions of the Union shall apply the principle of proportionality as laid down in the Protocol on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.Article 6 - Fundamental rights
1. The Union recognises the rights, freedoms and principles set out in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of 7 December 2000, as adapted on [… 2007], which shall have the same legal value as the Treaties.
The provisions of the Charter shall not extend in any way the competences of the Union as defined in the Treaties.
The rights, freedoms and principles in the Charter shall be interpreted in accordance with the general provisions in Title VII of the Charter governing its interpretation and application and with due regard to the explanations referred to in the Charter, that set out the sources of those provisions.2. The Union shall accede to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Such accession shall not affect the Union’s competences as defined in the Treaties.
3. Fundamental rights, as guaranteed by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and as they result from the constitutional traditions common to the Member States, shall constitute general principles of the Union’s law.
The new Article 5 goes further in delineating how the principle of conferral will work. To the principle of conferral is explicitly stated also the principle of subsidiarity and that of proportionality. I think that these three principle can be considered as a development of the concept expressed in the already cited US Tenth Amendment.
Note that the old Article 4, now 5, has been completely changed and the old Article 5 that was similar in some sense to tha old 4 has been completely repealed. Anyway this is not a real major change, because what was written in the old articles 4 and 5 will be restated later in the Reform Treaty.
About the Article 6, I think the new version is very much more focused on rights than the old one__this is possible because other topics as relations between EU and its Member States has already been deeply in the new articles discussed before. A major enhancement is the introduction of Charter of Fundamental Rights that will be kept out from the Treaty, but it will have nevertheless legal value. Here you can read it.
The old Article 3:
The Union shall be served by a single institutional framework which shall ensure the consistency and the continuity of the activities carried out in order to attain its objectives while respecting and building upon the acquis communautaire.
The Union shall in particular ensure the consistency of its external activities as a whole in the context of its external relations, security, economic and development policies. The Council and the Commission shall be responsible for ensuring such consistency and shall cooperate to this end. They shall ensure the implementation of these policies, each in accordance with its respective powers.
The old Article 3 is renumbered 4 and replaced with this:
Article 4 - Relations between the Union and the Member States
1. In accordance with Article [I-11], competences not conferred upon the Union in the Treaties remain with the Member States.
2. The Union shall respect the equality of Member States before the Treaties as well as their national identities, inherent in their fundamental structures, political and constitutional, inclusive of regional and local self-government. It shall respect their essential State functions, including ensuring the territorial integrity of the State, maintaining law and order and safeguarding national security. In particular, national security remains the sole responsibility of each Member State.
3. Pursuant to the principle of sincere cooperation, the Union and the Member States shall, in full mutual respect, assist each other in carrying out tasks which flow from the Treaties.
The Member States shall take any appropriate measure, general or particular, to ensure fulfilment of the obligations arising out of the Treaties or resulting from the acts of the institutions of the Union.
The Member States shall facilitate the achievement of the Union’s tasks and refrain from any measure which could jeopardise the attainment of the Union’s objectives.
The point one of this new article is a formulation of the principle of conferral. The principal of conferral in my view is an other point that makes a federal Union to be distinguishable from a unitary State with very strong regional autonomies. In the second case every power not explicitly given to the regional institutions by the unitary constitution will belong to the central institutions. Federal Unions instead are based on the principle of conferral: every power not explicitly given to the central institutions will belong to the regional ones. The principle of conferral “always underpinned the European Union“, even if only now it has been stated explicitly, and in my view resembles very much the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The whole Article 4 anyway aims to remark the reciprocal “rights&duties” between European Union and Member States. Again this is quite normal in any federal Union, in which some powers are explicitly conferred to central institutions and all other powers belong to the regional institutions. So even if on a mere abstract level there is no difference among EU and a federal Union, of course there is a big concrete difference: national security is “the sole responsibility of each Member State”, that has to be added to the repealing of the common defence as an objective of the Union (see here).
So the legal framework of the European Union seems to me to be clearly a federal one:
However even if the general structure of power division is that of a federal Union, if we look at the way how power is actually divided we find a huge difference among the European Union and for example the United States: the Member States of the EU didn’t conferred to it the military power, so it seems there will no room for a common defence (at least at this point of the treaty, but we will see that things are a little different).
Anyway, as my last remark I want to notice that “national security remains the sole responsibility of each Member State” is a little ambiguous statement if we look at it in order to answer this question: if a group of Member States will decide to create a common army the European Union shall block them? I mean, the assertion that national security is just a matter of the States can be read also as forbidding a sub-set of the Member States of clustering together on this point?
The answer to this last question will come later in the treaty.
I am going to continue here my survey of the draft version of the Reform Treaty that I started there.
Well, this is the Article one of the consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union:
Article 1
By this Treaty, the HIGH CONTRACTING PARTIES establish among themselves a EUROPEAN UNION, hereinafter called ‘the Union’.
This Treaty marks a new stage in the process of creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, in which decisions are taken as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen.
The Union shall be founded on the European Communities, supplemented by the policies and forms of cooperation established by this Treaty. Its task shall be to organise, in a manner demonstrating consistency and solidarity, relations between the Member States and between their peoples.
This will be the new version (italic indicates changes):
Article 1 - Establishment of the Union
By this Treaty, the HIGH CONTRACTING PARTIES establish among themselves a EUROPEAN UNION, hereinafter called ‘the Union’ on which the Member States confer competences to attain objectives they have in common.
This Treaty marks a new stage in the process of creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, in which decisions are taken as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen.
The Union shall be founded on the present Treaty and on the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. It shall replace and succeed the European Community.
The first adding is that of the title of the article. Titled articles seem to be a convention for the new version of the treaty, all the articles of the old treaty will be changed in this way.
The second adding brings makes clearer the federal concept that the Union exists because it Members want it to exist not the opposite. This is a key point in understanding the difference between a central State with strong regional autonomies and a federal State or Union. In the first case it is the central State that decide if which regions should exist and then it will share or delegate some powers to them and the regions will not be allowed to get more power than that. In a federal State or Union it happens quite the reverse: the constituent States decide to make a Union to exist, after having decided this they find an agreement about which powers they want to confer to this Union and the Union will not be allowed to take get more power than that.
The old Article 2 will be renumbered Article 3 and a completely new Article 2 will be inserted, so this was the old Article 2:
The Union shall set itself the following objectives:
— to promote economic and social progress and a high level of employment and to achieve balanced and sustainable development, in particular through the creation of an area without internal frontiers, through the strengthening of economic and social cohesion and through the establishment of economic and monetary union, ultimately including a single currency in accordance with the provisions of this Treaty,
— to assert its identity on the international scene, in particular through the implementation of a common foreign and security policy including the progressive framing of a common defence policy, which might lead to a common defence, in accordance with the provisions of Article 17,
— to strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of the nationals of its Member States through the introduction of a citizenship of the Union,
— to maintain and develop the Union as an area of freedom, security and justice, in which the free movement of persons is assured in conjunction with appropriate measures with respect to external border controls, asylum, immigration and the prevention and combating of crime,
— to maintain in full the acquis communautaire and build on it with a view to considering to what extent the policies and forms of cooperation introduced by this Treaty may need to be revised with the aim of ensuring the effectiveness of the mechanisms and the institutions of the Community.The objectives of the Union shall be achieved as provided in this Treaty and in accordance with the conditions and the timetable set out therein while respecting the principle of subsidiarity as defined in Article 5 of the Treaty establishing the European Community.
And this will be the new version with the completely new Article 2 and the reformed Article 3:
Article 2 - The Union’s values
The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail.
Article 3 - The Union’s objectives
1. The Union’s aim is to promote peace, its values and the well-being of its peoples.
2. The Union shall offer its citizens an area of freedom, security and justice without internal frontiers, in which the free movement of persons is ensured in conjunction with appropriate measures with respect to external border controls, asylum, immigration and the prevention and combating of crime.
3. The Union shall establish an internal market. It shall work for the sustainable development of Europe based on balanced economic growth and price stability, a highly competitive social market economy, aiming at full employment and social progress, and a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment.
It shall promote scientific and technological advance.
It shall combat social exclusion and discrimination, and shall promote social justice and protection, equality between women and men, solidarity between generations and protection of the rights of the child.
It shall promote economic, social and territorial cohesion, and solidarity among Member States.
It shall respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity, and shall ensure that Europe’s cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced.4. The Union shall establish an economic and monetary union whose currency is the euro.
5. In its relations with the wider world, the Union shall uphold and promote its values and interests and contribute to the protection of its citizens. It shall contribute to peace, security, the sustainable development of the Earth, solidarity and mutual respect among peoples, free and fair trade, eradication of poverty and the protection of human rights, in particular the rights of the child, as well as to the strict observance and the development of international law, including respect for the principles of the United Nations Charter.
6. The Union shall pursue its objectives by appropriate means commensurate with the competences which are conferred upon it in the Treaties.
So the new Article 2 is about the basic values and I have not too much to say about them, apart that I endorse them… Coming to the Article 2, things become a little more complicated. Let’s compare each point of the new Article 3 with its old corresponding paragraph using a table:
| 1. The Union’s aim is to promote peace, its values and the well-being of its peoples. | - |
| - | — to strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of the nationals of its Member States through the introduction of a citizenship of the Union |
| 2. The Union shall offer its citizens an area of freedom, security and justice without internal frontiers, in which the free movement of persons is ensured in conjunction with appropriate measures with respect to external border controls, asylum, immigration and the prevention and combating of crime. | — to maintain and develop the Union as an area of freedom, security and justice, in which the free movement of persons is assured in conjunction with appropriate measures with respect to external border controls, asylum, immigration and the prevention and combating of crime |
| 3. The Union shall establish an internal market. It shall work for the sustainable development of Europe based on balanced economic growth and price stability, a highly competitive social market economy, aiming at full employment and social progress, and a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment. It shall promote scientific and technological advance. It shall combat social exclusion and discrimination, and shall promote social justice and protection, equality between women and men, solidarity between generations and protection of the rights of the child. It shall promote economic, social and territorial cohesion, and solidarity among Member States. It shall respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity, and shall ensure that Europe’s cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced. 4. The Union shall establish an economic and monetary union whose currency is the euro. |
— to promote economic and social progress and a high level of employment and to achieve balanced and sustainable development, in particular through the creation of an area without internal frontiers, through the strengthening of economic and social cohesion and through the establishment of economic and monetary union, ultimately including a single currency in accordance with the provisions of this Treaty |
| 5. In its relations with the wider world, the Union shall uphold and promote its values and interests and contribute to the protection of its citizens. It shall contribute to peace, security, the sustainable development of the Earth, solidarity and mutual respect among peoples, free and fair trade, eradication of poverty and the protection of human rights, in particular the rights of the child, as well as to the strict observance and the development of international law, including respect for the principles of the United Nations Charter. | — to assert its identity on the international scene, in particular through the implementation of a common foreign and security policy including the progressive framing of a common defence policy, which might lead to a common defence, in accordance with the provisions of Article 17 |
| 6. The Union shall pursue its objectives by appropriate means commensurate with the competences which are conferred upon it in the Treaties. | — to maintain in full the acquis communautaire and build on it with a view to considering to what extent the policies and forms of cooperation introduced by this Treaty may need to be revised with the aim of ensuring the effectiveness of the mechanisms and the institutions of the Community. The objectives of the Union shall be achieved as provided in this Treaty and in accordance with the conditions and the timetable set out therein while respecting the principle of subsidiarity as defined in Article 5 of the Treaty establishing the European Community. |
So firstly we notice that peace appeared. Even if this documents are full of rhetoric I prefer to have peace written among objectives to not have it.
Then we notice that citizenship is no more an objective, but from the point two it becomes suddenly clear that it no more an objective because it is taken as something already acquired and it is better to concentrate to what the Union aims to offer to its citizens.
At point 3 we have a more detailed description of what more or less was already present in the old version, but the new version anyway seems to me much better.
At point 5 we find a major change (maybe the only real major change here). The “common foreign and security policy including the progressive framing of a common defence policy, which might lead to a common defence” is no more an objective. This is an interesting point. We can see this change as a tentative to put definitely aside common foreign policy and defence. However the articles we will see while going on with our analysis will show us this is not the case. Anyway this absence is worth of being noticed, especially if we compare it with the explicit presence of the single market and currency that were objectives in the past while now they are much more a kind of “data”.
Today I will start to focus on the proposed draft version of the Reform Treaty. The Reform Treaty is aimed to amend the present treaties about the EU and the European Community, so it is quite difficult to understand this new treaty without comparing it with the present version of the treaties it amends. Besides, this is not the first European treaty amending a previous one (see here for a quick history) and amendments has been stratifying during the decades, so in order to have a clear idea on what is the present situation we usually have to read the consolidated version of the treaties in force at present. So what I am going to do is comparing this consolidated version with what will result after the new amending by the Reform Treaty.
The sources of my notes will be the The Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community as in force from 1 February 2003 (Nice consolidated versions) and The Draft Treaty amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community
Well, let’s start with the Preamble.
This is the present version:HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF THE BELGIANS, HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN OF DENMARK, THE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY, THE PRESIDENT OF THE HELLENIC REPUBLIC, HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF SPAIN, THE PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC, THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, THE PRESIDENT OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLIC, HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE GRAND DUKE OF LUXEMBOURG, HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN OF THE NETHERLANDS, THE PRESIDENT OF THE PORTUGUESE REPUBLIC, HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND,
RESOLVED to mark a new stage in the process of European integration undertaken with the establishment of the European Communities,
RECALLING the historic importance of the ending of the division of the European continent and the need to create firm bases for the construction of the future Europe,
CONFIRMING their attachment to the principles of liberty, democracy and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and of the rule of law,
CONFIRMING their attachment to fundamental social rights as defined in the European Social Charter signed at Turin on 18 October 1961 and in the 1989 Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers,
DESIRING to deepen the solidarity between their peoples while respecting their history, their culture and their traditions,
DESIRING to enhance further the democratic and efficient functioning of the institutions so as to enable them better to carry out, within a single institutional framework, the tasks entrusted to them,
RESOLVED to achieve the strengthening and the convergence of their economies and to establish an economic and monetary union including, in accordance with the provisions of this Treaty, a single and stable currency,
DETERMINED to promote economic and social progress for their peoples, taking into account the principle of sustainable development and within the context of the accomplishment of the internal market and of reinforced cohesion and environmental protection, and to implement policies ensuring that advances in economic integration are accompanied by parallel progress in other fields,
RESOLVED to establish a citizenship common to nationals of their countries,
RESOLVED to implement a common foreign and security policy including the progressive framing of a common defence policy, which might lead to a common defence in accordance with the provisions of Article 17, thereby reinforcing the European identity and its independence in order to promote peace, security and progress in Europe and in the world,
RESOLVED to facilitate the free movement of persons, while ensuring the safety and security of their peoples, by establishing an area of freedom, security and justice, in accordance with the provisions of this Treaty,
RESOLVED to continue the process of creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, in which decisions are taken as closely as possible to the citizen in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity,
IN VIEW of further steps to be taken in order to advance European integration,
HAVE DECIDED to establish a European Union and to this end have designated as their Plenipotentiaries: (List of plenipotentiaries not reproduced)
WHO, having exchanged their full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed as follows.
To this it will be added this piece of inspiration:
DRAWING INSPIRATION from the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe, from which have developed the universal values of the inviolable and inalienable rights of the human person, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law,
Of course the beginning list of heads of State (note how many Queens and Kings!) will also change due to the fact that now there are many new countries which have joined us in 2004.
Focusing on the piece of preamble that will be added, we can see that it is what remains of the famous preamble of the proposed Constitution. The Roman Church strongly opposed it because here the text talk only of a vague “religious inheritance” and not of strong “Christian roots”. I will not go deeper in this debate, I just state that in my opinion the formulation of the present text is good enough.
However, I want to end this post focusing on an already consolidated part of this preamble:
RESOLVED to establish a citizenship common to nationals of their countries,
RESOLVED to implement a common foreign and security policy including the progressive framing of a common defence policy, which might lead to a common defence in accordance with the provisions of Article 17, thereby reinforcing the European identity and its independence in order to promote peace, security and progress in Europe and in the world,
This is a clue of the federalist soul of the EU. Many people, also European federalists, think that EU is not a federal State. I have a different opinion, but even if I admitted that the Union is not a federal one yet, I would ask those people to admit at least that EU has a clear federal direction and that this direction is already established in the treaties.