Treaty of Lisbon



INFORMATION NOTE
The Treaty of Lisbon entered into force on 1 December 2009. Here is a brief summary of the main
changes.

 

Factsheets

  • President of the European Council   
  • The High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy / The European External Action Service 

 

Consolidated versions of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union (OJ C115, 9.5.2008)

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The following consolidated version of the Treaties is a revised version of the text put on line on this site on 15 April 2008. The only differences are that the footnotes indicating that a corrigendum procedure was under way have been deleted as the procedure was concluded on 24 April and that certain errors in references have been corrected (shown in yellow in the text).

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Treaty of Lisbon (OJ C306 17.12.2007) 

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Treaty of Lisbon 

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Treaty of Lisbon <HTML >

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Final Act 
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The Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community has been signed in Lisbon on 13 December 2007 by the representatives of the 27 Member States. In accordance with its Article 6, the Treaty will have to be ratified by the Member States in accordance with their respective constitutional requirements and will enter into force on 1 January 2009, provided that all instruments of ratification have been deposited, or, failing that, on the first day of the month following the deposit of the last instrument of ratification.


The Treaty on European Union contains a provision allowing for the revision of the treaties.  Article 48 states that any Member State or the Commission may submit proposals to the Council for amending the treaties.  This opens the way, if the Council agrees, for the convening by the President of the Council of an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC).

 

Amending the treaties requires the unanimous agreement of all Member States.  It also requires ratification by all Member States in accordance with their own respective internal procedures before a new treaty can enter into force.

 

There have been a number of Intergovernmental Conferences over recent years.  These have resulted in successive amending treaties, notably the Single European Act (1986), the Treaty on European Union (1992), the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) and the Treaty of Nice (2001).