The Treaty of Lisbon 2007: Winning minds, not hearts

It would be tempting to say of the Treaty of Lisbon 2007 (TL): all's well that ends well. Except that not everything is well, and matters are far from ended. This article seeks to provide an overview of the main reforms to the Union's primary law contained in the TL, highlighting some of the problems those reforms create and some of the issues they are likely to generate in the future. If either the Constitutional Treaty had been ratified successfully by all the Member States, or if a text such as the TL had emerged directly from the Convention on the Future of Europe, it is quite likely that they would now be celebrating a major achievement in the history of European integration and a complete vindication of the optimism once embodied in the Laeken Declaration. But events proved to be more tumultuous, and hindsight can be an unforgiving judge.