Legal basis of EU participation in working process of other international organizations

The Treaty of Lisbon has introduced a number of significant changes that enable the European Union to participate in the works of other international organizations. It should however be underscored that there is still no single legal basis in the Treaties, which would clearly provide for EU membership in other international organizations. For this reason, the decisions on EU accession to other international organizations are usually based on a combination of several provisions of the Treaties at the same time. The Treaties also do not define the precise rules which would regulate the issue of statements by the EU and its Member States in other international organizations. These rules were adopted by the Council, Member States, the Commission and the European External Action Service on 22 October 2011, as the 'EU Statements in multilateral organizations - General Arrangements'. The General Arrangements' legal nature indicates that they are legally binding and, at least in part, their provisions constitute some kind of an agreement between the parties involved in their adoption.