The Reform Treaty
After much discussion and debate, the 27 countries struck a deal on the final wording of the Reform Treaty.
The final version brought the following changes to the initial draft treaty:
The charter of fundamental rights will not be annexed to the Treaties. However, the European Council will be adopt the charter through a Declaration and it will have the same legal status as the treaties. This was a strong demand from the three MEPs involved in the IGC.
The subheadings on "participatory society", "representative democracy", and "democratic equality" will be removed from Title II of the Treaty, but the content will remain the same.
The so-called Ioannina clause will be included in a separate protocol, on the demand of Poland. The clause allows for a minority of Member States to delay decisions taken by qualified majority in the Council "within a reasonable space of time", even if they do not have the full blocking minority.
Mandate given to the IGC
EU leaders agreed in June 2007 that the mandate for the IGC discussions would be:
Charter of Fundamental Rights: An article referring to the Charter and giving it a legally binding status will be introduced. A protocol states that the charter does not apply in the UK (and probably does not apply in Ireland or Poland either). However, the scope and validity of this exemption has already be questioned.
Terminological and status changes: The idea of a European Constitution is abandoned. The future text will be called the “Reform Treaty” and will amend existing Treaties. There will be no mention of symbols to do with the EU (anthem, flag or motto) in the Reform Treaty.
Voting system: The extension of the qualified majority voting in the Council will be postponed until November 2014. A new blocking minority system will be put in place: to stop a decision from being adopted, the blocking minority must include at least 4 Member States.
Primacy of EU law over national law: A declaration will recall that treaties and legal provisions adopted at EU level have primacy over the laws of Member States under the conditions laid down by the European Court of Justice case law.
Common foreign and security policy: There will be no European Minister of Foreign Affairs. Instead, the reform treaty foresees a “High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy”. However, the extent of activities remains the same.
Role of national parliaments: National parliaments are given a period of eight weeks to examine the draft EU legislative text. In the draft constitution, the period foreseen was six weeks.
The provisions on participatory democracy shall be kept in the Reform Treaty.
Full version of draft reform treaty
