EU leaders including President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek will be in the Portuguese capital, today, to celebrate the coming into force of the Treaty of Lisbon.

Buzek will be accompanied by pomp, circumstance and fireworks, alongside newly chosen European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, President: the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, Prime Minister of Sweden and currently president of the EU Fredrik Reinfeldt, Prime Minister of Portugal José Socrates, Prime Minister of Spain Jose Luis Zapatero and new head of EU diplomacy, Baroness Catherine Ashton.

The originally named European Union Reform Treaty has been termed the “Lisbon Treaty” as it was there that EU leaders, including President Lech Kaczynski and, the then, newly elected PM Donald Tusk negotiated the terms of the agreement on 13 December 2007, while Portugal was holding the six-month rotating presidency.

The treaty includes increasing the number of issues which can be resolved by qualified majority voting, the creation of a head of the European Council and foreign policy chief, and the Charter of Fundamental Rights becomes legally binding, although UK, Poland and the Czech Republic have obtained opt-outs from part of the latter.  

The Lisbon Treaty has had a long, difficult birth, with its origins laying with the EU Constitutional Treaty which was scuppered after being rejected in French and Dutch referenda.

Late signing

Poland’s own ratification of the document has also had difficulties. Both houses of parliament voted for the Lisbon Treaty over one and a half years ago but it was only after the Irish voted for “Yes” in October this year - after rejecting it the first time a year ago - that President Lech Kaczynski finally sat down and signed it.

Some MPs from the Law and Justice party have not given up their opposition to it, however, with 61 of them sending it to the Constitutional Tribunal to see if it is compatible with Polish law.

Some Constitutional experts warned, however, that the treaty will only come into force when it has been printed and published in the special  Dzienniku Ustaw (Official Gazette). Under Polish legal codes, a law is only enforceable after it has been announced publicly. One day before EU leaders gathered in Lisbon for the celebrations, the Lisbon Treaty had still not appeared in Dzienniku Ustaw. (pg)