Treaty of Lisbon

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Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community
Type of treaty	Amender of previous treaties
Drafted	7–8 September 2007
Signed - location	13 December 2007 Lisbon, Portugal
Sealed	18 December 2007
Effective - condition	1 January 2009 or later ratified by all Member States
Signatories	EU Member States
Depositary	Government of Italy
Languages	23 EU languages
Website	europa.eu/lisbon_treaty
	Wikisource original text: Treaty of Lisbon

The Treaty of Lisbon (also known as the Reform Treaty) is a treaty designed to streamline the workings of the European Union (EU) with amendments to the Treaty on European Union (TEU, Maastricht) and the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC, Rome), the latter being renamed Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) in the process. The stated aim of the treaty is "to complete the process started by the Treaty of Amsterdam and by the Treaty of Nice with a view to enhancing the efficiency and democratic legitimacy of the Union and to improving the coherence of its action."^[1]

Prominent changes introduced with the Treaty of Lisbon include more qualified majority voting in the EU Council, increased involvement of the European Parliament in the legislative process through extended codecision with the EU Council, reduction of the number of Commissioners from 27 to 18, eliminating the pillar system, and the creation of a President of the European Union and a High Representative for Foreign Affairs to present a united position on EU policies (see more below). If ratified, the Treaty of Lisbon would also make the Charter of Fundamental Rights (human rights provisions) legally binding.

The negotiations on modifying the EU institutions began in 2001, first resulting in the European Constitution, which failed due to rejection in two referendums. The Treaty of Lisbon was signed on 13 December 2007 in Lisbon (as Portugal held the EU Council's Presidency at the time), and was planned to have been ratified in all member states by the end of 2008, so it could come into force before the 2009 European elections. However, the rejection of the Treaty on 12 June 2008 by the Irish electorate means that the treaty cannot currently be ratified.^[2]

Contents 1 History 1.1 Background 1.2 New impetus 1.2.1 Timetable 1.3 June European Council 1.4 Intergovernmental Conference 1.5 October European Council 1.6 Signing 1.7 Ratification 1.7.1 Ratification statuses at a glance 1.7.2 Specific national issues 1.7.2.1 Czech Republic 1.7.2.2 Finland - Åland Islands 1.7.2.3 Ireland 1.7.2.4 Germany 1.7.2.5 Poland 2 Function 3 Fundamental Rights Charter 4 Amendments 4.1 Summary 4.2 Central Bank 4.3 Court of Justice 4.4 Court of First Instance 4.5 Council 4.5.1 Presidency of the Council 4.6 European Council 4.6.1 President of the European Council 4.7 Parliament 4.8 National parliaments 4.9 Commission 4.10 Foreign relations 4.10.1 Foreign High Representative 4.11 Legal personality and pillar consolidation 4.12 Defined policy areas 4.13 Enlargement and secession 4.14 Revision procedures 4.15 Climate change 4.16 Mutual solidarity 4.17 Defence 5 Opt-outs 5.1 United Kingdom and Poland 5.2 Ireland and United Kingdom 6 Compared to the Constitutional Treaty 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Background

Further information: History of the European Constitution

The need to review the EU's constitutional framework, particularly in light of the accession of ten new Member States in 2004, was highlighted in a declaration annexed to the Treaty of Nice in 2001. The agreements at Nice had paved the way for further enlargement of the Union by reforming voting procedures. The Laeken declaration of December 2001 committed the EU to improving democracy, transparency and efficiency, and set out the process by which a constitution aiming to achieve these aims could be created. The European Convention was established, presided over by former French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, and was given the task of consulting as widely as possible across Europe with the aim of producing a first draft of the Constitution. The final text of the proposed Constitution was agreed upon at the summit meeting on 18–19 June 2004 under the presidency of Ireland.

The Constitution, having been agreed by heads of government from the 25 Member States, was signed at a ceremony in Rome on 29 October 2004. Before it could enter into force, however, it had to be unanimously ratified by each member state. Ratification took different forms in each country, depending on the traditions, constitutional arrangements, and political processes of each country. In 2005, referendums held in the Netherlands and France rejected the European Constitution. While the majority of the Member States already had ratified the European Constitution (mostly through parliamentary ratification, although Spain and Luxembourg held referendums), due to the requirement of unanimity to amend the constitutional treaties of the EU, it became clear that it could not enter into force. This led to a "period of reflection" and the political end of the proposed European Constitution.

[edit] New impetus

In 2007, Germany took over the rotating EU Presidency and declared the period of reflection over. By March, the 50th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, the Berlin Declaration was adopted by all Member States. This declaration outlined the intention of all Member States to agree on a new treaty in time for the 2009 Parliamentary elections, that is to have a ratified treaty before mid-2009.^[3]

Already before the Berlin Declaration, the Amato Group (officially the Action Committee for European Democracy, ACED) – a group of European politicians, backed by the Barroso Commission with two representatives in the group – worked unofficially on rewriting the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (EU Constitution). On 4 June 2007, the group released their text in French – cut from 63,000 words in 448 articles in the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe to 12,800 in 70 articles.^[4] In the Berlin Declaration, the EU leaders unofficially set a new timeline for the new treaty;

[edit] Timetable

21–23 June 2007	European Council meeting in Brussels, mandate for IGC
23 July 2007	Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) in Lisbon, text of Reform Treaty
7–8 September 2007	Foreign Ministers’ meeting
18–19 October 2007	European Council in Lisbon, final agreement on Reform Treaty
13 December 2007	signing in Lisbon
by end of 2008	ratified by all Member States
1 January 2009	entry into force

[edit] June European Council

On 21 June 2007, the European Council met in Brussels to agree upon the foundation of a new treaty to replace the rejected Constitution. The meeting took place under the German Presidency of the EU Council, with Chancellor Angela Merkel leading the negotiations as President-in-Office of the European Council. After the Council quickly dealt with its other business, such as deciding on the accession of Cyprus and Malta to the Eurozone, negotiations on the Treaty took over and lasted until the morning of 23 June 2007. The hardest part of the negotiations was reported to be Poland's insistence on 'square root' voting in the EU Council.^[5][6]

Agreement was reached on a 16-page mandate for an Intergovernmental Conference, that proposed removing much of the constitutional terminology and many of the symbols from the old European Constitution text. In addition it was agreed to recommend to the IGC that the provisions of the old European Constitution should be amended in certain key aspects (such as voting or foreign policy). Due to pressure from the United Kingdom and Poland, it was also decided to add a protocol to the Charter of fundamental human rights within the EU (clarifying that it did not extend the rights of the courts to overturn domestic law in Britain or Poland). Among the specific changes were greater ability to opt-out in certain areas of legislation and that the proposed new voting system that was part of the European Constitution would not be used before 2014 (see Provisions below).^[7][8]

In the June meeting, the name 'Reform Treaty' also emerged, finally clarifying that the Constitutional approach was abandoned. Technically it was agreed that the Reform Treaty would amend both the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC) to include most provisions of the European Constitution, however not to combine them into one document. It was also agreed to rename the Treaty establishing the European Community, which is the main functional agreement including most of the substantive provisions of European primary law, to "Treaty on the Functioning of the Union". In addition it was agreed, that unlike the European Constitution where a Charter was part of the document, there would only be a reference to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union to make that text legally binding.^[7] After the council, Poland indicated they wished to re-open some areas. During June, Poland's Prime Minister had controversially stated that Poland would have a substantially larger population were it not for World War II.^[5] Another issue was that Dutch prime minister Jan-Peter Balkenende succeeded in a greater role for national parliaments in the EU decision making process, as he declared this to be non-negotiable for Dutch agreement.^[9]

[edit] Intergovernmental Conference

Portugal had pressed and supported Germany to reach an agreement on a mandate for an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) under their presidency. After the June negotiations and final settlement on a 16-page framework for the new Reform Treaty, the Intergovernmental conference on actually drafting the new treaty commenced on 23 July 2007. The IGC opened following a short ceremony. The Portuguese presidency presented a 145 page document (with an extra 132 pages of 12 protocols and 51 declarations) entitled the 'Draft Treaty amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community' and made it available on the Council of the European Union website as a starting point for the drafting process.^[10]

In addition to government representatives and legal scholars from each member state, the European Parliament sent three representatives. These were conservative Elmar Brok, social democratic Enrique Baron Crespo and liberal Andrew Duff.^[11]

Before the opening of the IGC, the Polish government expressed a desire to renegotiate the June agreement, notably over the voting system, but relented under political pressure by most other Member States, due to a desire not to be seen as the sole trouble maker over the negotiations.^[12]

[edit] October European Council

The October European Council, led by Portugal's Prime Minister José Sócrates (President-in-Office of the European Council at the time), consisted of legal experts from all Member States scrutinising the final drafts of the Treaty. During the council, it became clear that the Reform Treaty would be called Treaty of Lisbon because its signing would take place in Lisbon, Portugal, the holder of Council's presidency at the time. This naming practice is in line with most EU treaties in the past (the Maastricht Treaty was signed in Maastricht etc.).

At the European Council meeting on 18 October and 19 October 2007 in Lisbon, a few last-minute concessions were made to ensure the signing of the treaty.^[13] That included giving Poland a slightly stronger wording for the revived Ioannina Compromise, plus a nomination for an additional Advocate General at the European Court of Justice. The creation of the permanent "Polish" Advocate General is formally conditioned by an increase of the number of Advocates General from 8 to 11.^[14]

[edit] Signing

The treaty was signed 13 December 2007 by heads of government for Member States in the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon, Portugal. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was criticised by sections of the media for not taking part in the main ceremony, instead signing the treaty separately a number of hours after the other delegates. A requirement to appear before a committee of British MPs was cited as the reason for his absence.^[15]

[edit] Ratification

In order to enter into legal force, the Treaty of Lisbon must be ratified in all Member States. If this does not happen as scheduled by the end of 2008, the Treaty will come into force on the first day of the month following the last ratification.^[16]

Most states have or will ratify in parliamentary processes. Due to a provision in its constitution, Ireland had to hold a referendum on the Treaty, which resulted in a rejection by 53.4% of those who voted, against 46.6% for. There were unsuccessful calls to governments to hold referendums in some other member states.

Hungary was the first to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon on 17 December 2007. Since that date, the number of Member States that have completed the parliamentary ratification has risen to 25 of the total 27, and the number of Member States that have deposited their ratification with the Government of Italy, which is the final step needed in order for the Treaty of Lisbon to enter into force, to 22.^[17]

[edit] Ratification statuses at a glance

Signatory	Conclusion date	Chamber			AB	Deposited[17]	Ref.
Austria	9 April 2008	National Council	151	27	5	13 May 2008	[18]
	24 April 2008	Federal Council	58	4	0		[19]
	28 April 2008	Presidential Assent	Granted				[20]
Belgium	6 March 2008	Senate	48	8	1	15 October 2008	[21]
	10 April 2008	Chamber of Representatives	116	11	7		[22]
	19 June 2008	Royal Assent	Granted				[23]
	14 May 2008	Walloon Parliament (regional) (community matters)	56	2	4		[24]
	14 May 2008		53	3	2		[25]
	19 May 2008	German-speaking Community	22	2	1		[26]
	20 May 2008	French Community	67	0	3		[27]
	27 June 2008	Brussels Regional Parliament	65	10	1		[28]
	27 June 2008	Brussels United Assembly	66	10	0		[29]
	10 July 2008	Flemish Parliament (regional) (community matters)	76	21	2		[30]
			78	22	3		[30]
	11 July 2008	COCOF Assembly	52	5	0		[31]
Bulgaria	21 March 2008	National Assembly	195	15	30	28 April 2008	[32]
Cyprus	3 July 2008	House of Representatives	31	17	1	26 August 2008	[33]
	Unknown	Presidential Assent	Granted				[34]
Czech Republic	December 2008 or March 2009	Chamber of Deputies					[35]
	TBD	Senate
	TBD	Presidential Assent
Denmark	24 April 2008	Parliament	90	25	0	29 May 2008	[36]
	30 April 2008	Royal Assent	Granted				[37]
Estonia	11 June 2008	Parliament	91	1	9	23 September 2008	[38]
	19 June 2008	Presidential Assent	Granted				[39]
Finland incl.  Åland Islands	11 June 2008	Parliament	151	27	21	30 September 2008	[40]
	12 September 2008	Presidential Assent	Granted				[41]
	Autumn 2008	Åland Parliament					[42][43]
France	7 February 2008	National Assembly	336	52	22	14 February 2008	[44]
	7 February 2008	Senate	265	42	13		[45]
	13 February 2008	Presidential Assent	Granted				[46]
Germany	24 April 2008	Federal Diet	515	58	1		[47][48]
	23 May 2008	Federal Council	65	0	4		[49][50]
	8 October 2008	Presidential Assent	Granted				[51]
Greece	11 June 2008	Parliament	250	42	8	12 August 2008	[52]
Hungary	17 December 2007	National Assembly	325	5	14	6 February 2008	[53]
	20 December 2007	Presidential Assent	Granted				[54]
Ireland	29 April 2008	Dáil Éireann	Passed				[55]
	9 May 2008	Seanad Éireann	Passed				[55]
	12 June 2008	Referendum*	46%*	53%*	N/A*		[55]
	TBD	Presidential Assent
Italy	23 July 2008	Senate of the Republic	286	0	0	8 August 2008	[56]
	31 July 2008	Chamber of Deputies	551	0	0		[57]
	2 August 2008	Presidential Assent	Granted				[58]
Latvia	8 May 2008	Parliament	70	3	1	16 June 2008	[59]
	28 May 2008	Presidential Assent	Granted
Lithuania	8 May 2008	Parliament	83	5	23	26 August 2008	[60]
	14 May 2008	Presidential Assent	Granted				[61]
Luxembourg	29 May 2008	Chamber of Deputies	47	1	3	21 July 2008	[62]
	3 July 2008	Ducal Assent	Granted				[63]
Malta	29 January 2008	House of Representatives	65	0	0	6 February 2008	[64]
Netherlands	5 June 2008	Second Chamber	111	39	0	11 September 2008	[65]
	8 July 2008	First Chamber	60	15	0		[66]
	10 July 2008	Royal Assent	Granted				[67]
Poland	1 April 2008	House of Representatives	384	56	12		[68]
	2 April 2008	Senate	74	17	6		[69]
	9 April 2008	Presidential Assent	Granted				[70]
Portugal	23 April 2008	Assembly of the Republic	208	21	0	17 June 2008	[71]
	9 May 2008	Presidential Assent	Granted				[72]
Romania	4 February 2008	Parliament	387	1	1	11 March 2008	[73][74]
	7 February 2008	Presidential Assent	Granted				[75]
Slovakia	10 April 2008	National Council	103	5	1	24 June 2008	[76][77]
	12 May 2008	Presidential Assent	Granted				[78]
Slovenia	29 January 2008	National Assembly	74	6	0	24 April 2008	[79]
	7 February 2008	Presidential Assent	Granted
Spain	26 June 2008	Congress of Deputies	322	6	2	8 October 2008	[80]
	15 July 2008	Senate	232	6	2		[81]
	30 July 2008	Royal Assent	Granted				[82]
Sweden	20 November 2008	Parliament	243	39	13		[83][84]
United Kingdom incl. Gibraltar	11 March 2008	House of Commons	346	206	81	16 July 2008	[85][86]
	18 June 2008	House of Lords	Content				[87]
	19 June 2008	Royal Assent	Signified				[88][89]
	TBD	Gibraltar Parliament					[90]
European Union	20 February 2008	European Parliament	525	115	29	N/A	[91][92]
*Turnout: 53.13% (1,621,037 votes)
*752,451 votes (46.4%) "YES"-votes, 862,415 votes (53.2%) "NO"-votes and 6,171 votes (0.4%) spoilt

[edit] Specific national issues

[edit] Czech Republic

Ratification of the treaty in the Czech Republic has been suspended pending a ruling by the Constitutional Court to determine whether it is in line with the Czech Constitution. It was referred to the court by the Czech Senate.^[93] In June the Czech Government backed approval of the treaty by the Constitutional Court in its advisement submitted to the court, stating that "no substantial change in the arrangement of the democratic legal order [of the Czech Republic] will occur".^[94]

There has been speculation that the President of the Czech Republic could pose an obstacle to ratification of the treaty as he is staunchly eurosceptic and has called for the abandoning of the treaty even referring to it as "dead" after the Irish referendum (the only leader to have done so), stating that he would not sign the treaty unless Ireland had ratified before.^[95] During a visit to Dublin in November 2008, President Klaus gave his overview on the Treaty: "There has been a radical shift from integration to unification, from intergovernmentalism to supranationalism. The European Constitution, now called the Lisbon Treaty, is something which accelerates the shift. I'm afraid that freedom and democracy will not be enhanced by ratification of the Lisbon Treaty."^[96] Under the Czech Constitution ratification requires a presidential signature, though it is unlikely to be withheld should both houses of parliament approve the treaty.^[97]

The ruling from the Constitutional court is expected on 25 November 2008.^[98] The Czech prime minister admitted that there is no way for the treaty to be ratified before the end of 2008, but he expects ratification by March 2009.^[99]

[edit] Finland - Åland Islands

The Åland Islands, an autonomous region in Finland, will vote on the Treaty in the regional parliament. A two-thirds majority of the given votes will be required for the Treaty to be accepted. The process has begun, but no date for the vote has yet been set.

The regional (Åland) and the central (Finland) government are currently negotiating how EU-related issues concerning Åland will be treated in the future. The Åland government has put forward four requests that will have to be resolved before accepting the Treaty:

• An own seat in the European Parliament.
• Right to appear before the European Court of Justice (currently Åland is represented by Finland).
• Participation in the control of the principle of subsidiarity.
• Participation in the meetings of the Council.

At a press conference on 2 September 2008, the Åland government presented the current outcome of the negotiations:^[100]

• No seat in the European Parliament for now.
• The right to appear in court and the control of the principle of subsidiarity will be added to the autonomy law.
• The representation in the Council is already possible with the current autonomy law, but will be more formalized.
• A new document of principles regarding EU issues will be written.

No changes in the Treaty itself have been proposed. A rejection of the Treaty on Åland would not prevent it in the rest of Finland and the Union.

Finland is set to lose one Member of European Parliament in accordance with both the Treaties of Nice and Lisbon.^[101] Åland wishes to maintain their own representative in the European Parliament but this would give the island a disproportionate amount of voter influence, with a value of 30 (relative to Germany), whereas Finland as a whole currently only has a relative influence of 2.^[102]

[edit] Ireland

Further information: Twenty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland Bill, 2008

Following a 1987 decision of the Supreme Court of Ireland, international treaties that might be in conflict with the Constitution of Ireland require the assent of the people to amend it so as to permit ratification. Any such amendment needs to be put to a public vote. Thus Ireland was the only Member State that held a referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon, in addition to a parliamentary vote.

All members from the three government parties in the Oireachtas supported the 'Yes' campaign. So did all opposition parties in the parliament, with the exception of Sinn Féin.^[103] The Green Party, whilst being a party in the government, did not officially take a line, having failed to reach a two-thirds majority either way at a party congress in January 2008, leaving members free to decide. Most Irish trade unions and business organisations supported the 'yes'-campaign also. Those campaigning for the 'No' vote included political party Sinn Féin, lobby group Libertas and the People Before Profit Alliance.^[104]

The result of the referendum on 12 June 2008 was in opposition to the treaty, with 53.4% against the Treaty and 46.6% in favour, in a 53.1% turnout.^[105] A week later, Eurobarometer conducted hours after the vote was released,^[106] indicating why the electorate voted as they did. 10 September, the government published the more in-depth research analysis on voters' states reasons for voting yes or no.^[107]

First plans for a revote appeared in July 2008: The term of the current European Commission would be extended until the Lisbon Treaty comes into force, member states would agree not to reduce the number of Commissioners and Ireland would hold another vote in September or October 2009 after receiving guarantees on abortion, taxation and military neutrality.^[108]In a widely-publicised policy paper, published in October 2008, EU specialist Dr. John O'Brennan argued that, presuming that all other 26 member states ratified the Treaty by early 2009, the Irish government would have no option but to hold a second referendum. But the issue will be whether Ireland remains a member of the EU or voluntarily departs.^[109] In November 2008 the Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin told his parliamentary Subcommittee on Ireland's Future in the European Union that there was "no question" of Ireland's EU partners putting pressure on its government, and that: "There is an appreciation that the result of the referendum reflected serious and genuinely held concerns".^[110]

[edit] Germany

German ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon was placed on hold.^[when?] While parliamentary ratification was being completed, formal ratification required the signature of the President, which had been withheld pending a ruling from the Constitutional Court on its compatibility with the Basic Law, Germany's constitution.^[111] Which followed a challenge launched by German MP Peter Gauweiler a member of Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU), who sits in the Bundestag, claiming the Treaty unconstitutional. Mr. Gauweiler launched a similar challenge to the European Constitution in 2005 but after its failure the Constitutional Court made no ruling and a presidential signature was never given. ^[112]

In October 2008 Germany's president Köhler has signed the German law which prepares the implementation of the treaty on a national level and has agreed to sign the instruments of ratification of the treaty, but will wait to sign and deposit it in Rome until the Constitutional Court has given its approval, which is expected to take place in 2009.^[113]

[edit] Poland

Ratification in Poland was stalled while awaiting presidential signature (so-called "ratification act"). The President, by that point, did sign the bill which allows him to ratify the treaty^[114] (in that bill the procedure for granting consent to ratification was chosen according to Article 90.4 of the Polish constitution.^[115]). It