The Treaty of Lisbon ― Origins and Negotiation

Decisive rejection by French and Dutch voters in 2005 forced the EU to abandon the Constitutional Treaty agreed the previous year. Yet by the end of the 2007, contrary to all expectations and after an intergovernmental conference essentially devoid of substantive negotiation, EU leaders had agreed and signed the Treaty of Lisbon containing the bulk of the Constitutional Treaty's substantive reforms.

How did this latest treaty come about? Why did events move so quickly in 2007? Who were the key actors and what methods did they use to enable a treaty to be drawn up and agreed in such a short period of time?

This book explores the unique process that saw EU leaders hastily agree a lengthy and detailed mandate for the intergovernmental conference. In doings so, it highlights the pivotal roles played by the German Council Presidency and key institutional actors in paving the way for and securing agreement among EU leaders on the new treaty.

David Phinnemore is Professor of European Politics at Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland and Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges. He has published widely on a range of EU issues, notably treaties and treaty reform, enlargement, external relations, particularly association, and Romania's position within European integration.