As expected the European Parliament endorsed today the Council’s proposal to amend the Lisbon Treaty allowing the European Parliament to be composed of 754 MEPs for this parliamentary term. Moreover, the MEPs agreed that a convention is not necessary to discuss the treaty amendment as an Intergovernmental Conference would be sufficient. An IGC will be, therefore, convened to revise the Lisbon Treaty. The Spanish EU presidency is keen to start negotiations before the end of its presidency in June. Obviously, such amendments would only enter into force after being ratified by all the member states in accordance with their respective constitutional rules. Hence, the amendment treaty will have to be voted at a new Parliament. Matthew Elliot noted “David Cameron has always been explicit that had he been Prime Minister when the Treaty came forward for ratification, he would have held a referendum. Until now that has simply been a hypothetical situation – but now it is set to become a reality.” This could be an opportunity to the Conservative party to repatriate powers from Brussels.
