Lisbon Treaty weathers stormy first year

A year to the day after the Lisbon Treaty came into force, the European Union is wrestling with a set of serious crises, ranging from the threat of a eurozone breakup to an intractable dispute over the bloc's 2011 annual budget.

Broad criticism has been leveled at European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and top EU diplomat Catherine Asthon, two new posts created under the Lisbon Treaty, while eruptions of nationalist sentiment across the Union have alarmed the document's chief arc...