This WEEK in the European Union

With the Lisbon Treaty not quite a half year in place, academics and journalists will gather in the European Parliament on Tuesday and Wednesday to assess the impact of the new rulebook.

Aside from the obvious changes of a beefed up role for the EU foreign policy chief and the creation of a permanent president of the European Council to give a sense of coherency to EU leaders' regular meetings, the most substantial change has been a shift of power to the European Parliament. Gaining co-...