Treaty of Lisbon

The Treaty of Lisbon, initially known as the Reform Treaty, is a European agreement that amends the two treaties forming the constitutional basis of the European Union: the Treaty on European Union (the updated Maastricht Treaty of 1992) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (the updated Treaty of Rome of 1957). It also amends the attached protocols and the treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community. All EU member states signed it on 13 December 2007 and it entered into force on 1 December 2009. Prominent changes included a move from unanimity to qualified majority voting in at least 45 policy areas in the Council of Ministers, a more powerful European Parliament forming a bicameral legislature alongside the Council, a consolidated legal personality for the Union, a long-term President of the European Council, and a legally binding Charter of Fundamental Rights. For the first time the treaty gave member states an explicit legal right to leave the Union and set out a procedure for doing so. It followed the abandoned Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, which French and Dutch voters rejected in 2005, and its own ratification was delayed when Irish voters rejected it in June 2008 before approving it in a second referendum in October 2009.