Recent EU Treaty Amendments and UK Ratification

The Treaty of Lisbon, which came into force in December 2009, introduced new procedures for amending the EU Treaties.

The Lisbon Treaty made the convention method (used to draw up the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe) the Ordinary Revision Procedure. Major Treaty revisions are prepared by a convention comprising a wide range of contributors, with the final decision made by an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) of Member State governments and followed by the usual national ratification procedures.

Lisbon provided a new Simplified Revision Procedure to amend EU policies in Part Three of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Here, there is no need for an IGC; the European Council can adopt the revision, which is then submitted to Member States for ratification.

Lisbon also contained a passerelle, or ‘bridging’, clause, which allows a move from unanimous voting in the Council to qualified majority voting (QMV), and from a Special Legislative Procedure (unanimous voting) to the Ordinary Legislative Procedure (QMV).

This Note outlines the three Treaty amendments that have been adopted since the Lisbon Treaty came into force and how these amendments have been ratified in the UK.