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Article: Backgrounder: Lisbon Treaty, EU's reform treaty
- Article from:
- Xinhua News Agency
- Article date:
- June 12, 2008
CopyrightCopyright 2008 Xinhua News Agency. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Backgrounder: Lisbon Treaty, EU's reform treaty
BRUSSELS, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Irish voters go to the polls on
Thursday for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty which will make key
institutional reforms of the European Union (EU) possible. As
Ireland is the only EU member state to hold a referendum, the Irish
vote is crucial to the fate of the treaty.
The Lisbon Treaty, signed by EU heads of state and government in
December 2007 in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, replaced a failed
EU constitution. The following are the main points of the Lisbon
Treaty:
Initially known as the Reform Treaty, it aims to make EU decision-
making more efficient in light of the ever-enlarging nature of the
bloc.