13 December 2007

Signing ceremony of the Treaty of Lisbon

The 27 EU Member States have signed the Treaty of Lisbon.

"With the Treaty of Lisbon Europe finally overcomes the political and institutional impasse that limited its capacity to act during the last few years", Jose Socrates, Portuguese Prime-Minister, said at the signing ceremony.

“In the European Union, not everything revolves around economic cost-benefit analysis”, Mr Pöttering, President of the European Parliament said. “Europe is first and foremost a community of values. These shared values, at the heart of which is the respect for the inviolable dignity of the individual enshrined in Article 1 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, are the basis for uniting Europe.”

"This treaty marks a watershed in the history of European integration”, the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso said. “I call on the Member States to honour their commitments and seek to ratify the treaty in good time for its entry into force on 1 January 2009".

Speech Socrates

Speech Pöttering

Commission press release

Lisbon Treaty website

Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community

Final Act

© Graham Bishop