The Amended EU Treaties - see for yourself
The leaders of the European Union countries signed the Treaty of Lisbon on 13 December 2007.
It will now have to be approved by each of the Member States before it becomes law – at the earliest from January 2009.
The Government supports the Treaty. It contains sensible changes to the current Treaties to modernise the way the EU works. This will help it deliver
more effectively for the citizens of its member countries.
In particular, it streamlines rules originally drawn up when the EU had fewer members. Since 2004 12 more countries have joined the EU – nearly doubling its membership from 15 to 27 over the past 4 years.
The first article of the Treaty of Lisbon amends the Treaty on European Union, originally signed in Maastricht in 1992.
The second amends the Treaty establishing the European Community, which has its roots in the arrangements agreed in 1957 when there were just 6 founding members. It renames that Treaty the “Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union”.
The other 5 articles of the Treaty of Lisbon are short and are largely technical and legal arrangements.
They are followed by a series of Protocols which deal with some specific issues.
Alongside the Treaty of Lisbon there are a series of Declarations, many of which are intended to help clarify the content of the Treaty itself.
This page summarises the key changes and points you towards the actual text in the amended Treaties so that you can “see for yourself”.
Download a printable PDF of the Consolidated text of the EU Treaties, as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon (2,169 KB)
How the amended Treaties will apply in the United Kingdom
While the UK, like all the other Member States, has agreed to the Treaty of Lisbon we have a number of special arrangements written into it. They make
clear that the Government will keep control in important areas.
There is a legally binding protocol on the Charter of Fundamental Rights. This guarantees that the Charter does not extend the ability of any court -
European or national - to strike down UK law.
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for yourself:
There are also legal arrangements to safeguard our criminal law system and police and judicial processes. We have a right to “opt-in” on individual
measures, where we consider it would be in the British interest to do so. But we can also remain outside, if we want to. So the new treaty gives us the
freedom to protect the fundamentals of our common law system, while at the same time it allows us to participate in areas where co-operation is in the
national interest. No-one can force us to participate in a measure.
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for yourself:
We also secured the following important points:
Foreign policy remains a matter for governments to decide. And voting by unanimity is the general rule for all policy decisions. A Declaration states
that nothing in the Treaty of Lisbon affects the existing powers of Member States to formulate and conduct their foreign policy. This includes maintaining
their own national diplomatic services and, in the case of the UK and France, membership of the UN Security Council. There is no threat to our UN Security
Council seat.
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for yourself:
On social security we have secured an effective veto power on any important changes. We can insist on taking any proposal to the European Council and,
because it will be decided by unanimity, we have a veto where we think that a proposal would impact on important aspects of our social security system
including its scope, cost or financial structure.
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for yourself:
And the amended Treaties will make clear that national security is the sole responsibility of Member States.
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for yourself:
The President of the European Council
The leaders of the EU Member States currently meet 4 times a year at what are called European Councils (or “EU Summits”) to agree policies and action in a
range of areas.
At the moment each country, as President of the Council, takes it in turn to chair these meetings for six months. But these frequent changes inevitably
mean a lack of consistency and follow-through and don’t help the EU to work effectively.
The changes under the Treaty of Lisbon will enable EU leaders to choose a full-time President of the European Council who will hold the post for two and a
half years. The President will chair meetings and help drive through policies agreed by the Member States. But it will continue to be the EU’s national
leaders, not the President, who will take all the final decisions when they meet together.
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for yourself:
The European Commission
It is the role of the European Commission to propose new laws, which are in turn considered by the European Parliament and the Member States. The
Commission also helps ensure existing laws are implemented fairly.
The Commission is headed by a group (or “College”) of Commissioners. At the moment, each EU member nominates its own Commissioner but with 27 members this
is making the Commission large and unwieldy.
The changes to the Treaties will restrict, from 2014, the number of Commissioners to two-thirds of the number of Member States. This change should make
the Commission more effective, especially when more countries join the EU.
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for yourself:
The European Parliament
The European Parliament’s main role is to consider laws proposed by the Commission and approve them in agreement with the Member States.
Under the amended Treaties members of the European Parliament have more of a say over EU decisions. At the same time, it reduces and caps the number of MEPs
from the existing 786 to 750, no matter how many more countries join.
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for yourself:
The High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
The UK, like all EU Member States, decides its own foreign policy. But when EU Member States take the same view on a foreign policy issue, they can agree
to pursue a common policy. When they do this they are helped by the ‘High Representative’ – currently Javier Solana.
In addition the Commission also has a role on external issues, particularly in the areas covered by the External Relations Commissioner - currently Benita
Ferrero-Waldner.
But this can be confusing for countries outside the EU, so the changes to the Treaties merge these posts into a new job called The High Representative for
Foreign Affairs & Security Policy. This will give the EU a more effective voice internationally.
But Britain will continue to conduct its own foreign policy, and sit on the UN Security Council. And the new High Representative will work on the basis
of foreign policy positions agreed by all Member States.
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for yourself:
The European External Action Service
The European Union already has Commission and Council officials who work in offices around the world on agreed foreign policy issues. They will be brought together, with staff on loan from the Member States, under a new External Action Service (EAS) to work under the High Representative. They will not replace Member States’ own diplomats.
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for yourself:
European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP)
Closer co-operation across the EU on security and defence has been driven by the UK and France. The two countries wanted, for example, to improve the
effectiveness of the EU when involved in peace-keeping and disaster relief operations.
The changes to the Treaties continue to develop this co-operation. They also set out that Member States should help each other in the event of a
terrorist attack or disaster on their territory.
But the ESDP does not replace NATO nor undermine individual countries’ own right to take military action.
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for yourself:
National Parliaments
In future national parliaments will have a direct say in the EU’s law-making procedures.
National Parliaments will now be able to challenge a proposal if, for example, a third of them decide it affects an area they believe is a matter not for
the EU but for individual member countries.
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The Voting System
The amended Treaties will include a new system of majority voting called Double Majority Voting (DMV) from 2014. This is more closely based on population
size than the current system so is fairer and also gives the UK a bigger say.
Most EU decisions are already taken by majority vote - known as Qualified Majority Voting (QMV). Prime Ministers from Margaret Thatcher onwards have
supported QMV because they believed it prevented individual countries blocking the progress – for example on the single market - that the UK wanted to see.
QMV will now apply to a number of new areas to allow quicker decision making and progress in an EU of 27 states. 50 articles move to QMV. 20 are in areas
where the UK wants faster decision making, eg. energy. 14 are procedural and 16 do not apply to the UK at all.
Under the new formula most decisions will be taken only if they are supported by at least 15 out of 27 Member States and they represent at least 65% of
the EU’s population. The result of the new system and the UK’s large population by European standards is that our share of the vote increases from 8% to over
12%.
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for yourself:
The Charter of Fundamental Rights
The Charter of Fundamental Rights brings together in one place the rights that people have in the EU.
It does not create new rights or take away existing ones. The rights it contains will continue to apply in the UK in exactly the same way they do now.
There is a Protocol to the Treaty which spells this out.
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for yourself:
Legal Personality
The EU already makes international agreements on behalf of member countries where they have decided on a common policy.
The EU has not, however, had up to now what lawyers call a single legal personality so it has signed up to these international obligations in different
ways. The Treaty of Lisbon ends this confusion by creating a single legal personality for the EU for the first time.
But the Member States will continue to task the EU to negotiate on their behalf in exactly the same way as they do now and will have the final say over whether the EU should sign up to any agreements.
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for yourself:
Simplified Treaty Revision
There have been simplified revision procedures, (or “passerelles”) in the Treaties for over 20 years. They allow for existing EU treaties to be amended more easily.
The changes set out in the Treaty of Lisbon include some new simplified revision procedures. But it is clear that the two new general simplified revision procedures can only be used if the Member States, and their national parliaments, are all content.
And the Prime Minister has made clear that, under the proposed law (the “European Union (Amendment) Bill”) to apply the Treaty in the UK, Members of Parliament would be able to vote on whether or not to implement the two general simplified revision procedures or any others that would result in moves to QMV.
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for yourself:
Justice and Home Affairs
Justice and Home Affairs co-operation covers things like police and judicial systems. The Lisbon Treaty will make qualified majority voting and co-decision with the European Parliament the norm (at the moment it applies in some parts, but not others). But the decisions taken will not affect the UK unless we believe such co-operation is in our national interest.
The UK has a special “opt-in” which means we can pick and choose where and when we want to cooperate with other Member States in these areas. The Treaty of Lisbon also confirms for the first time that national security remains the sole responsibility of each Member State.
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for yourself:
Competence
The amended Treaties make clear that the EU institutions must act within the limits of the powers (known as “competence”) given to them by the Member
States. There are also arrangements under which these powers can be returned to the Member States.
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for yourself:
Exit Clause
For the first time, the Treaties will explicitly confirm that any Member State can leave the EU if it wants to, and they explain how this would work.
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for yourself:
