People continue to arrive at this blog while looking for a consolidated version of the Treaty of Lisbon, and often they have been referred by a search engine to an older post on consolidated versions or the lack of such.
It seems to take a while for the word to spread that the Council has, at last, published consolidated versions of the amended treaties.
At the same time, below are the main resources concerning the treaty reform process post Nice.
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New TEU and TFEU
The Council’s provisional consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) has been available since 16 April 2008. Go to the following Lisbon Treaty web page and choose your preferred treaty language (out of 23):
http://consilium.europa.eu/cms3_fo/showPage.asp?id=1296&lang=en
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Original Treaty of Lisbon
The original unconsolidated Treaty of Lisbon (ToL) with the amendments to the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community, signed at Lisbon, 13 December 2007, was published in the Official Journal of the European Union, OJ 17.12.2007 C 306/1.
The amending Lisbon Treaty is available in 23 treaty languages through:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOIndex.do?year=2007&serie=C&textfield2=306&Submit=Search&_submit=Search&ihmlang=en
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Current TEU and TEC
Until the Lisbon Treaty amendments enter into force, the European Union and the European Community continue to work according to the Nice and accession treaties. In addition to being the legislation in force, the current treaties form the basis for comparison with the proposed changes.
The latest consolidated versions of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and of the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC) have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, OJ 29.12.2006 C 321 E/1.
For the consolidated treaties in force in your preferred language version among the then 21 treaty languages (Bulgarian and Romanian missing), go to:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOIndex.do?year=2006&serie=C&textfield2=321E&Submit=Search&_submit=Search&ihmlang=en
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Draft Constitution
After the less than satisfactory Treaty of Nice, the treaty reform process was re-launched by the Laeken Declaration and the work accomplished by the European Convention, which produced the draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, published OJ 18.7.2003 C 169/1.
Here you can find the draft Constitution, which formed the basis for the following intergovernmental conference(s) (IGC 2003 and 2004) and most of the proposals debated today, in the treaty languages at that time (excluding Gaelic and the official languages of the entrants 2004 and later):
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOIndex.do?year=2003&serie=C&textfield2=169&Submit=Search&_submit=Search&ihmlang=en
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Constitution
During the IGC 2004 the governments of the member states agreed on and signed the Treaty establishing the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, published OJ 16.12.2004 C 310/1. By then, ten countries had become EU members in 2004 and Gaelic had become an official EU language, so only Bulgarian and Romanian language versions are unavailable there.
The Constitutional Treaty, which was ratified by two thirds of the member states, is available at:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?year=2004&serie=C&textfield2=310&Submit=S%C3%B6k&_submit=S%C3%B6k&ihmlang=en
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Other consolidations
Before the Council published its consolidations, there were – as far as I was able to find out – consolidated versions for a minority of the member states, but a majority of EU citizens through other channels. The latest compilation was the blawg post ‘Consolidated EU Lisbon Treaty Update April 2008’, published 9 April 2008:
http://grahnlaw.blogspot.com/2008/04/consolidated-eu-lisbon-treaty-update.html
A blog post ‘Lisbon Treaty updates: Promising and promised’ of 15 April 2008 added information on two new publications by the IIEA, a new highlighted version making it easy to see the changes and an Irish Gaelic consolidation:
http://grahnlaw.blogspot.com/2008/04/lisbon-treaty-updates-promising-and.html
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Dear Reader,
Consolidations in book form, commentaries, articles and official papers on the Treaty of Lisbon, as well as on EU law and politics generally, are in constant demand. Please, share your information with me and the readers of this blog.
Ralf Grahn
Monday, 21 April 2008
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A consolidated version in all languages is available from:
ReplyDeletehttp://europa-eu-audience.typepad.com/en/2008/04/consolidated-tr.html
In view of the URL Can we assume this is official?
I think that the blog links to the Council version, because it referred to it (as far as I remember, when I read the blog).
ReplyDeleteIt should be the same one as the one I call the Council's provisional consolidation. It has been prepared by the Council Secretariat, like earlier consolidated versions, but they make a small reservation for mistakes that may crop up during the ratification processes.
Even the consolidations published in the Official Journal have always been equipped with the proviso that they are for 'illustrative purposes only'.
But the Council version of the Lisbon Treaty (or more precisely the TEU and TFEU, as amended) is, I guess, as official as it is going to get until the treaty has entered into force.
Thanks.
ReplyDeleteFor blogging purposes then this is 'official' enough for purpose.
I cannot find the post where I commented on the Death Penalty footnote to a footnote, but have traced from here:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2007:303:0017:0035:EN:PDF
the following:
Explanation on Article 2 — Right to life
1. Paragraph 1 of this Article is based on the first sentence of Article 2(1) of the ECHR, which reads as follows:
‘1. Everyone's right to life shall be protected by law …’.
2. The second sentence of the provision, which referred to the death penalty, was superseded by the entry into force of
Article 1 of Protocol No 6 to the ECHR, which reads as follows:
‘The death penalty shall be abolished. No-one shall be condemned to such penalty or executed.’
Article 2(2) of the Charter is based on that provision.
3. The provisions of Article 2 of the Charter correspond to those of the above Articles of the ECHR and its Protocol.
They have the same meaning and the same scope, in accordance with Article 52(3) of the Charter. Therefore, the
‘negative’ definitions appearing in the ECHR must be regarded as also forming part of the Charter:
(a) Article 2(2) of the ECHR:
‘Deprivation of life shall not be regarded as inflicted in contravention of this article when it results from the use
of force which is no more than absolutely necessary:
(a) in defence of any person from unlawful violence;
(b) in order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained;
14.12.2007 EN Official Journal of the European Union C 303/17
(*) Editor's note: References to article numbers in the Treaties have been updated and some minor technical errors have been corrected.
(c) in action lawfully taken for the purpose of quelling a riot or insurrection.’
(b) Article 2 of Protocol No 6 to the ECHR:
‘A State may make provision in its law for the death penalty in respect of acts committed in time of war or of
imminent threat of war; such penalty shall be applied only in the instances laid down in the law and in accordance with its provisions…’.
How does this influence the death penalty in member states? (If you have time).
Mr Cole,
ReplyDeleteHere is an attempt to answer your questions on the death penalty (mostly from memory, so not 100 per cent accurate).
The pioneer has been the pan-European Council of Europe.
The goal has been to abolish the death penalty once and for all, but the idea has been received slowly.
First came the abolition of the death penalty in general, but left the possibility for member states to use it in war or when war was imminent. I think that this was protocol number 6, ratified by all EU members.
Protocol number 13 on the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances was signed 3 May 2002, and it entered into force 1 July 2003 after ten ratifications, just days before the European Convention published its final text of the draft Constitution.
Many of the EU member states ratified later, the latest entry into force seems to be France, 1 February 2008.
As I see it, it has not been possible for the EU to update its reference to the European Convention on Human Rights or the Explanations (basically by the European Convention which drafted the Constitution proposal), because it would not have been covered by all members by the way of the additions (protocols) to the Human Rights Convention.
Today, if a quick look is correct, there are three EU members which have signed but not ratified the latest protocol (abolition under all circumstances): Italy, Poland and Spain.
If I remember correctly, when the EU wanted to arrange a campaign week against the death penalty last year, the only member state to oppose the initiative was Poland (under the former government).
To conclude: 24 out of 27 member states are bound by their commitments to the European Human Rights Convention. There has been no opportunity to update the EU Charter or its Explanations. The EU as an organisation is dead set against the death penalty (if you excuse the pun).
If you want to look closer, go to
www.coe.int
and click Human Rights and choose the Convention.