EU Treaty is Signed

BBC - EU leaders sign landmark treaty

EU leaders have signed a treaty in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, that is expected to greatly alter the way the 27-nation body operates.

The treaty creates an EU president and a more powerful foreign policy chief.

The document, signed at a ceremony at the city's historic Jeronimos Monastery, also scraps veto powers in many policy areas.

It is a replacement for the EU constitution, which was abandoned following French and Dutch opposition.

EU leaders insist that the two texts are in no way equivalent.

But the Lisbon treaty incorporates some of the draft constitution's key reforms, and several governments face domestic pressure over the document.

In a speech before the signing, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called on European leaders to use the treaty to make freedom, prosperity and solidarity an everyday reality for all European citizens.

"From this old continent, a new Europe is born," he said.

Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said the treaty would create a more modern, efficient and democratic union.

"The world needs a stronger Europe," he said.

The leaders signed the treaty, translated into the EU's 23 official languages, using specially engraved silver fountain pens as a choir sang Beethoven's Ode to Joy.

UK signing

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown signed the treaty later in the day after missing the ceremony, citing a prior engagement in the British parliament.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband attended the signing ceremony.

The UK's opposition Conservatives accused Mr Brown of "not having the guts" to sign the treaty, which is politically controversial in Britain, in public.

Having started this year with a celebration of its 50th birthday, the EU hopes the signing of the Lisbon treaty will end the serious mid-life crisis brought about by the death of the constitution, the BBC's Oana Lungescu reports.

There will be a lot of relief, said a senior European diplomat, but also some apprehension about what happens next.

Ireland is the only country planning to hold a referendum, but most voters there seem either undecided or indifferent.

Parliaments in Britain, the Netherlands and Denmark are also expected to give a turbulent reception to the 250-page text.

However, Germany, France and Poland have pledged to be among the first to ratify it, so that the new reforms can come into force in 2009 as planned.

The treaty is a slimmed-down version of the European constitution, with a more modest name and without any reference to EU symbols such as the flag and anthem.

It is meant to ease decision-making, by scrapping national vetoes in some 50 policy areas, including sensitive ones such as police and judicial co-operation.

There will also be a foreign policy chief, controlling a big budget and thousands of diplomats and officials, and a permanent EU president appointed for up to five years.

But some already fear that instead of giving Europe a strong single voice in the world, the new posts will only generate more rivalry, our correspondent adds.

A related article: Telegraph - Giscard: EU Treaty is the constitution rewritten

Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the architect of the abandoned European Constitution, has admitted that the document has been rewritten by EU leaders in a different order just to avoid the need for referendums.

Some old related posts:

No Referendum on EU Treaty?

Blair as EU President?

No Referendum on EU Treaty?

The Telegraph - Government defies rebels on EU referendum

The Government today insisted there would be no referendum on the new EU treaty, despite revelations in the Daily Telegraph that 120 Labour MPs now want a public vote.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said this morning that the treaty was different in "absolute essence" from the defunct European constitution, so the Government was not obliged to follow through on its manifesto pledge to hold a referendum.

It was Mr Straw who, as foreign secretary, persuaded Mr Blair to promise a referendum on the defunct constitutional treaty in Labour's 2005 general election manifesto.

Since becoming Prime Minister, Mr Brown has insisted that a referendum is not necessary because the replacement treaty - negotiated by Mr Blair in his last act as prime minister on the foreign stage - is less far-reaching than its predecessor. This was rejected in 2005 by French and Dutch voters and therefore never came into force.

However, his claim has incensed Labour rebels who have found common cause with several unions, and the Tories. All insist that the two treaties are virtually the same in all but name - and that as a result Labour should honour its 2005 election pledge.

More than 60,000 people have signed up to The Daily Telegraph campaign for a referendum.

Here is the petition from The Telegraph.

Here are some older articles about the treaty.

The Telegraph - Christopher Booker's notebook - EU treaty: the great double deception

Many people must have rubbed their eyes in disbelief at Gordon Brown's statement to MPs last Tuesday when, in announcing his new "constitutional settlement", he promised to give "more power to Parliament and the British people" on the one hand while, on the other, ruling out a referendum on the new EU treaty - which would take away a lot more power from Parliament and the British people.

Apart from a few cosmetic changes, such as changing "Foreign Minister" to "High Representative", and leaving out the flag and the anthem (which the EU has had since 1986 anyway), the net result is precisely what the French and the Dutch rejected in 2005.

Many Continental politicians have been quite happy to admit this. As Luxemburg's prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker put it, the new treaty contains "99 per cent" of what was in the old "Constitution for Europe".

The Telegraph - EU referendum revolt among Labour MPs

A group of Labour MPs has begun pushing for a referendum on the new European Union Treaty in the first serious revolt against Gordon Brown's leadership.

Yesterday at Prime Minister's Questions, David Cameron, the Tory leader, challenged Mr Brown to say how much of the old Constitutional Treaty - which was killed off by No votes in France and the Netherlands in 2005 - remained, in its replacement.

"The Irish prime minister says 90 per cent of the constitution remains in the treaty. The Spanish foreign minister says it's 98 per cent. What figure would the Prime Minister put on it?'' Mr Cameron asked.

Daily Mail - New EU treaty is old constitution in disguise, warns Hague

Gordon Brown faced fresh Tory pressure for a referendum on the new EU treaty yesterday after William Hague described it as 'overwhelmingly' similar to the old constitution.

The Shadow Foreign Secretary published research showing that only ten out of the 250 proposals contained in the document rejected by French and Dutch voters had changed.

In Labour's 2005 general election manifesto, Tony Blair had promised voters a referendum on the EU constitution that was eventually shelved that year.

Mr Brown has refused to hold one on the new treaty after insisting that the Government had protected its four 'red lines' on tax, human and social rights, foreign policy and benefits.

However, Mr Hague pointed to a stream of remarks from prominent EU leaders admitting that the new treaty is the constitution by a different name. Spanish foreign minister-Miguel Angel Moratinos has said that '98 per cent of the content' of the old constitution has survived.