Amendments to the treaties

Information

Before the Treaty of Lisbon, the treaties governing the European Union (EU) could be amended only if the governments of the member states agreed an amending treaty and that treaty was then ratified by all the member states. The ratification of a treaty was carried out in each member state in accordance with its own constitutional traditions. In most cases, this involves parliamentary approval. In some cases, for example in Ireland, a referendum was required.

The Treaty of Lisbon gives the European Council the power to make a number of changes to the treaties governing the EU. Some of these require the agreement of national parliaments. In Ireland’s case, the 28th amendment to the Constitution (pdf) provides that the approval of the Oireachtas is required for all these changes.

The Treaty of Lisbon gives the European Council the power to make some changes to the part of the Treaty on the functioning of the EU that deals with EU policies and internal actions. Any such change would have to be approved by all the member states in accordance with their own constitutional traditions.

The Treaty of Lisbon also gives the European Council the power to allow qualified majority voting to operate in certain areas where unanimity is required and to allow the ordinary legislative procedure to apply in certain areas to which a special legislative procedure applies. This power does not extend to military and defence issues. In these cases, any national parliament could prevent such a change within 6 months. In Ireland’s case, the changes to the Constitution provide that Ireland could approve such a change only if the Oireachtas agreed.