Foster: EU Law Directions 
Suggested approaches to end of chapter questions
Test bankFoster: EU Law Directions
September 2008
From the Constitutional Treaty to the 2007 Lisbon Reform Treaty and beyond?
Following the two year period of reflection about the Constitutional Treaty which had been rejected by the electorates in the Netherlands and France in 2005, the member states returned to considering the next move in Brussels in June 2007. The Constitutional Treaty was officially abandoned and an agreement was reached for a new amending Treaty, called the 'Reform Treaty' which will not replace the existing Treaties but amend them. A new IGC was convened in July 2007 to hammer out the details. Many of the features agreed for the Constitutional Treaty were incorporated into the 2007 Reform Treaty which will not replace the existing Treaties but amend them. Unfortunately, however, those amendments of the existing Treaties will be considerable. The main changes are noted here.
The Treaty on European Union will be turned more into an overview Treaty whilst the EC Treaty will be renamed the Treaty on the Functioning of the Union, dealing with substantive issues. Both, however, will concern the institutions. The Union will get its legal personality and the term 'Community' will be replaced throughout by 'Union'.
The proposed Union Minister for Foreign Affairs will be called the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
The new Council form will be established as envisaged by the Constitutional Treaty.
The names and types of secondary law 'Regulations, Directives and Decisions' will be kept but new definitions for them will be introduced.
The Charter on Fundamental Rights will become legally binding but with an opt-out for the UK and Poland.
Hence, far from consolidating the Treaty, Protocols and Declaration, the European Leaders have made the constitutional architecture of the Union even more complicated and fragmented. The Treaty was signed in Lisbon on 13th December 2007 by all 27 member states and was planned to enter into force on 1st Jan 2009 providing all member states ratify it. However, as you will no doubt be aware, the ratification process of the Lisbon Treaty was thrown into confusion by the rejection by the Irish electorate. Not for the first time have the Irish rejected a Treaty and not for the first time has a ratification process been disrupted by member states failing to ratify, most notably the Constitutional Treaty by the Dutch and French electorates in 2005. What happens next is down to the member states. In order to come into force, all 27 member states must ratify. As with the Constitutional Treaty, member states have continued the ratification process and at the time of writing, 24 member states had ratified, with just the Czech Republic and Sweden left to ratify.
Thus far, discussions focus on whether, if Ireland secures certain opt-outs or deals on some parts of the Treaty, the amended deal for Ireland will be put to a second Referendum with the hope that the Irish electorate then agree to ratify the Treaty. However, there exists though a very real danger that a second rejection will be the outcome. Essentially though, if the other 26 member states ratify, and are not willing to compromise or agree to any demands from Ireland, it will be for Ireland to provide a plan for how it intends to resolve the issue.
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