Background to the Lisbon Treaty
8. There are two principal treaties under which
the EU currently operates:
- the Treaty establishing the European
Community (often referred to as 'the Treaty of Rome'); and
- the Treaty on European Union (the Maastricht
Treaty).
Amendments to these treaties were made most recently
by the Treaty of Amsterdam (which entered into force in May 1999)
and the Treaty of Nice (February 2003).[7]
9. In 2003, the Convention on the Future of Europe
(chaired by the former President of France, Valéry Giscard
d'Estaing) concluded work on a Draft Treaty establishing a
Constitution for Europe.[8]
The purpose of this new treaty was, in the words of the Government,
"to make the EU more efficient, simpler to understand, more
accountable to the European and national Parliaments, and better
prepared to function effectively with 25 and more members".[9]
The text produced by the Convention was revised and agreed at
an Inter-Governmental Conference and adopted in October 2004 as
a Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe ("the
Constitutional Treaty"). The agreed text of the Treaty was
laid before Parliament in August 2003.[10]
In order for the Treaty to come into force, it needed to be ratified
by all Member States according to the requirements of their national
constitutions. In 18 of the Member States, the Constitutional
Treaty was ratified. In May and June 2005, however, the Treaty
was rejected by the people of France and the Netherlands in referendums.
The seven remaining Member States (including the UK) therefore
halted the procedures leading to ratification.
10. Following the demise of the Constitutional
Treaty, EU leaders agreed a detailed mandate for a new reform
treaty at the European Council in June 2007. This led to the Lisbon
Treaty, which was agreed by the governments of the Member States
in Portugal in December 2007.[11]
If ratified by all Member States, the Treaty will come into force
on 1 January 2009. There has been considerable debate over
how different the Lisbon Treaty is compared to the abandoned Constitutional
Treaty. We do not enter into that debate. Our focus in
this report is on the changes that the Lisbon Treaty would make
to the arrangements currently in force.
Amendments made by the Lisbon
Treaty
11. The Lisbon Treaty would make numerous textual
amendments to the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty of Rome.
Notably, it would bring an end to the legal entity called the
European Community (EC) so that henceforth it would be the EU
that exercises all powers under the Treaties. The existence since
1992 of two European entities (the EC and the EU) along with the
terminology of 'three pillars'[12]
representing different fields of policy and law-making has done
little to assist public understanding of 'Europe', and it is to
be hoped that this change will bring greater clarity.
12. If the Lisbon Treaty comes into force, there
will still be two principal treaties governing the operation of
the EU:
- the Treaty on European Union,
which as now will be a relatively short document—the 55
Articles set out the principles, basic institutional framework
and main policy areas over which the EU has responsibilities;
and;
- the Treaty on the Functioning of the European
Union—this is the renamed Treaty of Rome, as amended, and
provides a more detailed statement of the powers and procedures
of the EU institutions in 358 Articles.
13. The Treaty on the Functioning of the European
Union would be in seven parts.
TABLE 1
Treaty on the Functioning of the European
Union
