Treaty of Lisbon

The Treaty of Lisbon was signed by the 27 EU member states in Lisbon on 13 December 2007 and entered into force on 1 December 2009 after ratification by all signatories. It amended the two foundational EU treaties, which were renamed the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Lisbon was designed to salvage the substance of the failed 2004 Constitutional Treaty, which had been rejected by referendums in France and the Netherlands in 2005.

Key institutional changes include:

• Creation of a permanent President of the European Council (first held by Herman Van Rompuy) replacing the rotating six-month chair for that body.
• Strengthening of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, combined with the role of Vice-President of the Commission, and supported by a new European External Action Service (EEAS). Catherine Ashton was the first appointee.
• Extension of qualified majority voting (QMV) in the Council to additional policy areas and introduction of a "double majority" rule (55% of states representing 65% of the EU population), which became fully operational in 2014.
• Expansion of co-decision (renamed the ordinary legislative procedure) as the standard method, increasing the European Parliament's legislative power.
• Granting legally binding force to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (with opt-out protocols negotiated by the UK and Poland).
• Introduction of Article 50 TEU, the first formal mechanism for a member state to withdraw from the Union — later invoked by the United Kingdom in March 2017.
• A new European Citizens' Initiative allowing one million citizens to request Commission legislative proposals.

Ratification was complicated by an initial Irish referendum rejection in June 2008; a second referendum in October 2009 approved the treaty after Ireland secured legal guarantees on taxation, neutrality, and abortion.