Amendment of the Treaties

Abstract

Abstract This chapter sets out the procedures for amending the Treaties. An amendment to the Treaties enables amending or supplementing provisions to be adopted that have the same legal force as the original Treaty provisions. In this way, the original Treaties were amended and supplemented by the Single European Act and the EU Treaty, the Treaty of Amsterdam, the Treaty of Nice, and the Treaty of Lisbon. Since the last Treaty amendment (the Treaty of Lisbon), the Treaties contain simplified procedures for amending specific provisions alongside the ordinary revision procedure. Article 48(3) TEU provides for an initial phase during which the institutions can reflect on possible Treaty revisions, followed by the convening of a Convention, which will make recommendations as to the revisions, which will, in a third stage, be decided by the 'intergovernmental conference' or IGC. The chapter then considers whether the Treaties subject their amendment not only to procedural, but also to substantive constraints.