European Council has agreed on the contents of the EU Reform Treaty

The European Council has reached an agreement on the reform of the existing EU Treaties. The European Union Member States have decided to convene an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC), which will negotiate the details of the "Reform Treaty" on the basis of the made agreement.

The EU leaders agreed that the key reforms of the EU Constitutional Treaty, negotiated at the 2004 Intergovernmental Conference, will be implemented by amending the current Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC). TEC is to be called the Treaty on the Functioning of the Union.

Halonen_Vanhanen_Kanerva_Eurooppa-neuvostossa_kesä07 President Tarja Halonen, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva in a press Conference in the European Council (picture: Prime Minister's office)

It was decided that the reforms concerning the EU institutions, agreed upon at the 2004 Intergovernmental Conference – including new Council voting rules, changes to the composition of the Commission, creation of the office of President for the European Council, and principles guiding the distribution of seats at the European Parliament – would be kept mainly unchanged.

"Union Minister for Foreign Affairs" will be called High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. The introduction of new voting rules was postponed from 2009 to 2014. In addition, the Member States have a right to request that the current voting rules be applied till spring 2017.

The Reform Treaty will make the Charter of Fundamental Rights legally binding. The Charter of Fundamental Rights was adopted in 2000 as a political document. The Charter lists the rights that the Union and its Member States must abide by when implementing the Union laws. The United Kingdom was granted an option to remain outside the part of the Treaty concerning the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Thus the Charter of Fundamental Rights would not be applied to the operations of the UK national authorities.

Furthermore, the Reform Treaty will include reforms concerning internal Union policies aiming at increased efficiency and coherence of Union operations. New areas of policy will be transferred from unanimous decision-making procedure towards decisions by qualified majority. The most significant changes concern Union's justice and home affairs.

The Intergovernmental Conference will be convened during the Portuguese Presidency, starting on 1 July. The goal is to have the negotiations completed as soon as possible, and by the end of the year at the latest. After the negotiations at the IGC have been completed, the Treaty will be signed, after which each Member State has to ratify the Treaty before it can enter into force. The goal is to have the Reform Treaty enter into force before the next elections to the European Parliament, to be held in June 2009.

Other affairs on the agenda of the European Council included co-operation in justice and home affairs, economic, social and environmental issues, as well as key external relations issues dealing with the European Neighbourhood Policy, the Union’s Central Asia strategy, and EU-Africa relations.

Press release by the Government of Finland(Link to another website.)