“The leaders of the European Union countries signed the Treaty of Lisbon on 13 December 2007. It will now have to be approved by each of the Member States before it becomes law – at the earliest from January 2009. The Government supports the Treaty. It contains sensible changes to the current Treaties to modernise the way the EU works. This will help it deliver more effectively for the citizens of its member countries. In particular, it streamlines rules originally drawn up when the EU had fewer members. Since 2004 12 more countries have joined the EU – nearly doubling its membership from 15 to 27 over the past 4 years. The first article of the Treaty of Lisbon amends the Treaty on European Union, originally signed in Maastricht in 1992. The second amends the Treaty establishing the European Community, which has its roots in the arrangements agreed in 1957 when there were just 6 founding members. It renames that Treaty the “Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union”. The other 5 articles of the Treaty of Lisbon are short and are largely technical and legal arrangements. They are followed by a series of Protocols which deal with some specific issues. Alongside the Treaty of Lisbon there are a series of Declarations, many of which are intended to help clarify the content of the Treaty itself. This page summarises the key changes and points you towards the actual text in the amended Treaties so that you can “see for yourself”.