Ratification of the Lisbon Treaty

25 April 2008

After the French NON and Dutch NEE to the European Constitutional Treaty in 2005, Europe is now in the process of ratifying the Treaty of Lisbon or the Reform Treaty. It was signed on 13 December 2007, and in order to go into force on 1 January 2009 it has to be ratified by all 27 EU member countries by the end of 2008. How does it work and how far are we?

How does it work? It is up to the member states to decide how they ratify the treaty. In most countries only the parliament needs to vote on the treaty (e.g. Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania). In other member states both the parliament and the senate need to state their approval (Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain). In a few countries (e.g. Belgium, Finland, UK) regional parliaments need to cast their vote as well. Ireland is an exception in the ratification process, because it is the only country were a referendum will be held (on 12 June 2008).

How far are we? Slovenia, presiding the EU at the moment, was together with Malta the first country that ratified the treaty in January 2008. On 20 February the European Parliament approved the new treaty as well. As far as France, Hungary, Romania, Denmark, Portugal, Poland, Slovakia and Austria are concerned, the Reform Treaty will go into force on 1 January 2009 as well. Other countries are in the process of ratifying, for example, the national Parliaments of Belgium, Germany and the UK have already voted in favour of the Reform Treaty. So far there has been no vote against the treaty from any of the national chambers.

The coming few months will be very important for the future of the EU. Some of the traditionally EU-critical countries, like UK, Poland and Denmark, have already ratified the Lisbon Treaty, even though it was a close call in the UK House of Representatives with 346 in favour, 206 against and 94 abstensions. For the progressive Europhiles the process is going well, and if the Irish people vote in favour of the Treaty as well on 12 June, a sigh of relief will probably be heard across Europe....

For an update of the ratification process, see Wikipidia.