THE EUROPEAN GOVERNANCE BY THE YARDSTICK OF THE LISBON TREATY: WHAT IS THE SITUATION OF GOVERNMANCE?

The aim of this paper is to investigate the extent to which the shift from "government" to "governance" is affected by the Treaty of Lisbon and this in the light of the concept of "governmance". The analysis of the text of the Treaty and the evolution of the decision making processes leads us to notice that, rather than a shift from "government" to "governance", the evolution under way with the Treaty of Lisbon expresses a movement of interactions between both elements, marking perhaps the transformation of governance into a « new European governance » of which certain contours are emerging. This interactive dimension thus attests to the dynamic character underlined in several studies of the European integration process (Jachtenfuchs M & B. Kohler-Koch, 1996, Littoz-Monnet A., 2010). This will then lead us, by way of conclusion, to query the political nature of the European process. Such questioning is justified insofar as the answer to this question constitutes an additional element, making it possible to assess the new balance resulting from the interaction between « government » and « governance » in the European integration process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]