The Lisbon Treaty signed on December 13, 2007 amends the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community, making significant innovations to EU primary law. The Treaty on European Union (TEU) now contains the guiding principles and common rules of the Union system, as well as provisions relating to CFSP/CSDP, while the Treaty establishing the European Community (which has become the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union/TFEU) regulates sectoral policies (with the exception of CFSP/CSDP) and provides for detailed provisions relating to institutions and procedures. The repositioning and reformulation of many rules responds to a logic of rationalisation and greater readability, which is more evident in the “consolidated” version (OJEC No. C 115 of May 9, 2008), with a final effect not too different from that of the “Single Treaty”, originally envisaged in the draft Constitution for Europe, which was discontinued in 2004-2005.
Compared to the draft Constitutional Treaty, the terms “Constitution”, “Law” and “Framework Law” have been deleted, as well as the article on the symbols of the Union (with the exception of the Euro), which will nevertheless still apply in practice (as recognised by a declaration signed by 16 Member States), and the article on the primacy of EU law (a specific declaration, however, recognizes that this primacy is a fundamental and firmly established principle in the case law of the Court of Justice).
The Minister for Foreign Affairs has been renamed High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Unlike the Constitutional Treaty, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights does not appear in the Lisbon Treaty, but it is nevertheless given “the same legal value as the Treaties” through a special provision. With the adjustments already agreed upon in the Constitutional Treaty, the Charter was proclaimed again by the Presidents of the three institutions in Strasbourg on December 12, 2007.
European citizens’ rights are specified and strengthened. In particular, the European citizens’ initiative is established, enabling at least one million citizens to urge the European Commission to submit an appropriate proposal.
The major innovations concern the Union’s general architecture, as well as the institutions and their functioning. Putting an end to the distinction between “Community” and “Union”, from now on there will only be the European Union (which “replaces and succeeds the European Community”), with a single legal personality. With the new system, the “pillar” structure into which the Union had been organised since the Maastricht Treaty is also superseded, while retaining some distinct procedures according to subject matters. A “stable” President of the European Council is established, who presides over its work, and a High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, who is supported by a European External Action Service (EEAS) composed of officials from the Commission and the Council, and of Member States’ diplomatic officials. The double majority voting system (55% of the States and 65% of the population) is introduced in the Council (the previous system may be further applied, at the request of a Member State, until March 31, 2017). Furthermore, the strengthening of the so-called Ioannina mechanism (possibility for a minority of countries to ask to prolong the discussions in the Council for a “reasonable time”) is foreseen in order to facilitate the achievement of a broader consensus.
The European Parliament is probably the institution that is strengthened the most: the ordinary legislative procedure is generalised (co-decision with qualified majority voting in the Council), which ensures its full involvement in matters in which it had hitherto played a marginal role (e.g. the area of freedom, security and justice, agricultural policy and trade policy). New rules are introduced to define its composition, which is reduced overall to 751 members.
The role played by national Parliaments and the procedures for monitoring the implementation of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality are further strengthened. The division of competences between the Union and the Member States is also clarified and specified. The Protocol on the role of national Parliaments also provides for the organisation of regular inter-Parliamentary cooperation, defined jointly by the European Parliament and national Parliaments, and the possibility for the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs (COSAC) to bring any contributions it deems useful to the European institutions’ attention. National Parliaments are therefore also given a special role in relation to the Treaty revision procedure.
On the political level, the exceptions hitherto envisaged for the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, which is incorporated into the ordinary legislative procedure, albeit with some specificities, are gradually overcome. Some legal bases are created or reformulated (external representation of the Euro, energy, civil protection, administrative cooperation, sport, tourism, animal protection).
With regard to financial and budgetary aspects, multiannual financial planning is institutionalised. With specific reference to economic governance, the innovations of the Constitutional Treaty are incorporated. The Eurogroup is also institutionalised. Compared to the Constitutional Treaty, enriching elements are also introduced in the areas of energy and the environment.
All the innovations envisaged by the Constitutional Treaty in relation to the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Common Security and Defence Policy are incorporated (in particular, the possibility of “’permanent structured cooperation” is provided for). These innovations – together with the above-mentioned establishment of a stable Presidency of the European Council and of a High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, as well as the single legal personality of the Union and the creation of the European External Action Service – will make the Union more present, cohesive and effective on the international scene.
The Lisbon Treaty entered into force on December 1, 2009. Ratification took place by parliamentary procedure in all Member States (in Italy in July 2008) except in Ireland, where the negative outcome of the referendum in June 2008 meant that the originally scheduled date for the entry into force of the Treaty (January 1, 2009) was postponed. A second Irish referendum took place, with a positive outcome, on October 2, 2009, following the adoption by the European Council of June 18-19, 2009 of specific legal guarantees in the areas of family law, the right to life, education, direct taxation, social policies, workers’ rights, public services, neutrality and the European Security and Defence Policy.
The complex ratification process in the Czech Republic – where the procedure was finalised after the second Irish referendum and following the extension to that country of the “opt-out” from the Charter of Fundamental Rights that Poland also enjoys in order to limit the possibility of invoking it in proceedings before the respective courts – also contributed to the postponement of the Treaty’s entry into force.