Legal Comparison

Treaty of Nice vs. Treaty of Lisbon

The Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and the Treaty Establishing the European Community (TEC) were last amended upon the intergovernmental conference in Nice on 26 February 2001 ("Treaty of Nice"). Whereas the TEU provides for the principle of unanimity in the Council, the TEC solely requires a qualified majority in the Council. The European Parliament is not always an equal legislator alongside the Council. According to the Treaty of Lisbon a larger number of policy areas would be subject to the majority principle in the Council; the European Parliament would receive extended co-decision rights and the EU would obtain several new competences and be obliged to the bound to an EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Comparisons drawn by CEP