The Treaty of Lisbon and the Current Treaties

Abstract

Abstract This chapter explains how successive Treaty amendments, most recently the Lisbon Treaty, have led to the current Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The Brussels European Council of 21 and 22 June 2007, agreed to convene an Intergovernmental Conference, which was to draft a Reform Treaty amending the EU and EC Treaties and merging the Community and the EU into one European Union with legal personality, but without conferring on the Treaties a constitutional nature. The resulting treaty text—the Treaty of Lisbon—forms the basis for the current framework of the European Union. Unlike what the EU Constitution set out to do, the Treaty of Lisbon did not replace the existing Treaties by one single Treaty. Union action continues to be based on the amended Treaty on European Union (TEU), on the one hand, and the amended Treaty establishing the European Community—renamed the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)—on the other hand.