Lisbon Treaty

The Lisbon Treaty

1. Introduction

And finally the last change of the European Union, the Lisbon Treaty. It was signed by the EU member states on 13 December 2007 and entered into force almost two years later on 1 December 2009.

As we will see later, this Treaty introduces several changes in the EU institutional framework and will regulate this framework in the future. And we have to say the future because the Lisbon Treaty does not have any clause anticipating future reforms in the short term like the Declaration number 23 annexed to the Nice Treaty. These kind of clauses is called “technique of the Russian dolls”.

The new text amends the two treaties which composed the legal framework in the EU the precedent years: the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC). The TEC is now renamed as the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

Lisbon does not change the essence of the institutional system in the European Union. The real institutional reform had been produced in the Nice Treaty which entered in force in 2003. Now, with the Lisbon Treaty the number of institutions is 7 instead of 5, including now the European Council and the European Central Bank. The article 13 of TEU says literally “The Union’s institutions shall be: the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Commission (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Commission’), the Court of Justice of the IEuropean Union, the European Central Bank, the Court of Auditors.” This article also includes another innovation saying that “the Union shall have an institutional framework which shall aim to promote its values, advance its objectives, serve its interests, those of its citizens and those of the Member States, and ensure the consistency, effectiveness and continuity of its policies and actions.”

Each institution is regulated from art. 14 to art 19 of TEU, except the European Central Bank and the Court of Auditors whose...