The Lisbon Treaty

Home > The Lisbon Treaty > Negotiation Stage

EU leaders managed to overcome their two-year institutional impasse on 23 of June 2007 at the European Council in Brussels and agreed that, after two years of uncertainty over the Union's treaty reform process, the time had come to resolve the issue and for the Union to move on.
The EU Portuguese Presidency convened an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) which began on 23-24 of July with the task of drafting the future European Treaty. Portuguese Prime Minister José Sócrates announced that the priority of the Presidency would be to adopt the Treaty in October at the informal meeting of the Heads of State and Government in Lisbon. The Prime Minister said that “a lot of work lies ahead of us, but now we have the conditions to progress. This objective is our absolute priority for the coming months”. Sócrates underlined that he wants to "speed up this process", by "first, drafting and approving" the Treaty and only then “discussing its ratification”.
During the Portuguese Presidency, Poland continued to be the most unpredictable state. It pushed ahead with demands that a mechanism allowing countries to block an EU decision for up to two years was written into the treaty, instead of into a legally weaker declaration.
Italy caused consternation by issuing a last-minute complaint over the number of seats it will have in the EU Parliament after the next European elections in 2009.
But after a short period of negotiation José Sócrates said on the 18 of October «We are very, very close to having a new European treaty. And that treaty will be named the Treaty of Lisbon».
At around 02:00 a.m. local time on the 19 October 2007 the European Union leaders agreed on the precise text of the new "Lisbon Treaty", which was formally signed on the 13 December in Portugal's capital city.

RELEVANT DOCUMENTS AND MATERIAL REGARDING THE NEGOTATION STAGE

Tratado de Lisboa 2007 (versión consolidada del Real Instituto Elcano)
	Tratado de la Unión Europea
	Tratado de Funcionamiento de la Unión Europea
	Protocolos
	Declaraciones

Presidency of the IGC, 19.10.2007.
	Protocol (No 9bis) on the Decision of the Council relating to the Implementation of Article 9c(4) of the Treaty on European Union and Article 205(2) of the Treaty on the functionning of the European Union between 1 November 2014 and 31 March 2017 on the one hand, and as from 1 April 2017 on the other, (PDF) 19.10.2007
	Declaration on Article 9c(4) of the Treaty on European Union and Article 205(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, (PDF) 19.10.2007
	Declaration ad Article 9e of the Treaty on European Union, (PDF) 19.10.2007
	28. Declaration in relation to the delimitation of competences, (PDF) 19.10.2007
	Composition of the European Parliament, (PDF) 19.10.2007
	Declaration ad Article 222 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union on the number of Advocates-General in the Court of Justice, (PDF) 19.10.2007

Presidency of the IGC, Draft Treaty amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community, 05.10.2007.
	Draft Preamble (PDF)
	Draft Treaty amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community (PDF)
	Draft declarations (PDF) - Corrigendum to note 12.10.2007
	Protocols (PDF) - Corrigendum to note 12.10.2007

Presidency of the IGC, Draft Treaty amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishingthe European Community, 24.07.2007
	Draft Treaty amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community (PDF)
	Draft Preamble (PDF)
	Draft declarations (PDF)
	Protocols (PDF)

German EU Presidency (2007), Presidency Conclusions, Brussels European Council 21/22 June 2007, 11177/07, 23.06.2007. (PDF)

German EU Presidency (2007), Amendment of the Treaties on which the Union is founded - IGC Mandate, 26.06.2007. (PDF)

European Central Bank (2007), Opinion on the opening of an Intergovernmental Conference to draw up a Treaty amending the existing Treaties, 05.07.2007. (PDF)

European Commission (2007), Reforming Europe for the 21st Century - Opinion on the Conference of representatives of the governments of the Member States convened to revise the Treaties, 10.07.2007. (PDF)

European Parliament (2007), Resolution on the convening of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC): the European Parliament's opinion, 11.07.2007. (HTML)

Council of the European Union (2007), Opinion in favour of convening an Intergovernmental Conference under Article 48 of the TEU, 11.07.2007. (PDF)

Portuguese Presidency (2007), Convening of an Intergovernmental Conference, 19.07.2007. (PDF)

Committee of the Regions (2007), Relaunching the process of reforming the European Union in anticipation of the European Council of 21 and 22 June 2007, 27.07.2007. (PDF)