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EU leaders sign landmark treaty . BBC, all rights preserved.

EU leaders have signed a treaty in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, that is expected to greatly alter the way members govern themselves.
The treaty creates an EU president and a vastly more powerful foreign policy chief for the Union’s 27 nations.

At the same time the document scraps veto powers in many policy areas.

It is a replacement for the EU constitution abandoned following French and Dutch opposition. EU leaders insist the two texts are in no way equivalent.

But the Lisbon treaty incorporates some of the draft constitution’s key reforms, and several governments face domestic pressure over the document.

In a speech before the signing, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called on European leaders to use the treaty to make freedom, prosperity and solidarity an everyday reality for all European citizens.

KEY LISBON TREATY REFORMS
Creates new European Council president
New foreign policy supremo to increase EU profile
Commissioners reduced from 27 to 18
Removes national vetoes in around 50 policy areas
Voting weights between member states redistributed
No reference to EU symbols such as the flag and anthem
Treaty faces referendum in Ireland and must be ratified by all other EU parliaments


Q&A: Lisbon Treaty
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Mark Mardell’s Euroblog

"From this old continent, a new Europe is born," he said.

Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said the treaty would create a more modern, more efficient and more modern union.

"The world needs a stronger Europe," he said.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has chosen not to attend the ceremony, citing a prior engagement in the British parliament, but Foreign Secretary David Miliband is at the signing.

Mr Brown will sign the treaty separately, later on Thursday.

The UK’s opposition Conservatives accused Mr Brown of "not having the guts" to sign the treaty, which is politically controversial in Britain, in public.

Having started this year with a celebration of its 50th birthday, the EU hopes the signing of the Lisbon treaty will end the serious mid-life crisis brought about by the death of the constitution, the BBC’s Oana Lungescu reports.




Symbol of Portuguese history

There will be a lot of relief, said a senior European diplomat, but also some apprehension about what happens next.

Ireland is the only country planning to hold a referendum, but most voters there seem either undecided or indifferent.

Parliaments in Britain, the Netherlands and Denmark are also expected to give a turbulent reception to the 250-page text.

However, Germany, France and Poland have pledged to be among the first to ratify it, so that the new reforms can come into force in 2009 as planned.

Slimmed down

The treaty is a slimmed-down version of the European constitution, with a more modest name and without any reference to EU symbols such as the flag and anthem.

SIGNING TIMETABLE
1130 GMT: start of ceremony
1145 GMT: European Commission president’s speech
1200-1300 GMT: signing by EU heads of state and foreign ministers
1315: official photo
1325: leave monastery for lunch
It is meant to ease decision-making, by scrapping national vetoes in some 50 policy areas, including sensitive ones such as police and judicial co-operation.

There will also be a foreign policy chief, controlling a big budget and thousands of diplomats and officials, and a permanent EU president appointed for up to five years.

But some already fear that instead of giving Europe a strong single voice in the world, the new posts will only generate more rivalry, our correspondent adds.