Lisbon Treaty

European dignitaries converged on Lisbon on Tuesday to celebrate the 27-member bloc's new reform treaty.

The ceremony, which was rounded off by a fireworks display, took place at a specially built temporary venue next to the River Tagus in the Portuguese capital, near where the treaty was signed two years ago.

After years of wrangling with skeptical voters and politicians, the EU now has a treaty that rewrites all the previous treaties and agreements, starting with the 1957 founding Treaty of Rome, into one document.

"This is the day of the Lisbon Treaty, a day of new beginnings," said Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates.

The Lisbon Treaty, which officially took effect as of midnight on Tuesday, aims to streamline decision-making in the EU and provide the Union with more clout on the global stage.

It creates the post of EU president, filled by former Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, and a high representative for foreign and security affairs, filled by British Baroness Catherine Ashton. The two roles are the most immediately visible effects of the treaty and are meant to answer former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's famous question, "Who do I call when I want to call Europe?"

"We can now show the world that the EU will be better prepared for the challenges ahead of us," said Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

The European Parliament, made up of the only EU politicians directly elected by EU voters, gains new responsibilities including the field of justice and security. Citizens themselves also have the opportunity to propose new EU laws if they collect at least one million signatures.

"The Treaty of Lisbon puts citizens at the center of the European project," EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a statement. "I'm delighted that we now have the right institutions to act and a period of stability, so that we can focus all our energy on delivering what matters to our citizens."

The treaty also establishes a European charter of fundamental rights, although Britain, Poland and the Czech Republic have all secured full or partial opt outs.

The long road to Lisbon

What kind of reform document the EU needed has been the subject of heated debate since 2001 when the then-15-member-strong bloc determined it would grow significantly over the next decade. The EU now has 27 members and several other countries have lined up to join.

One of the continual criticisms of the Lisbon Treaty has been that it will create a super-state and infringe upon the sovereignty of individual member nations. Initially EU leaders wrote a constitution, but this document was rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands. The Lisbon Treaty was meant to be a compromise reform and was signed by national leaders in Lisbon, Portugal in October 2007.

But the navel-gazing continued after Irish voters rejected this text in June 2008. Top-level negotiations and a strengthened "Yes to Lisbon" campaign convinced voters to approve the treaty in a second round of voting this October.

nk/hf/AFP/dpa/Reuters
Editor: Chuck Penfold