Hungary first country to ratify new EU Treaty

With the ink on the new EU Treaty barely having dried after last week’s signing ceremony by heads of state and government in Lisbon, Hungary is hoping to set an example of the swift ratification needed to implement the institutional reforms by January 2009.

Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso welcomed the vote as an “expression of Hungarian support for a more effective, democratic and transparent and stronger EU”. “It is an important first step in bringing the concrete benefits of the new Treaty into effect. I hope that other member states will follow the lead given by Hungary.”

An overwhelming majority of 325 members of parliament voted in favour of the new EU Treaty, with only five opposed and 14 abstentions on Monday (17 December).

“Hungary is behind this new Treaty, which retains the virtues of the Constitution and is also in the interest of Hungary,” Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said.

The Lisbon Treaty provides for an institutional overhaul after the draft EU Constitution was rejected in referenda in France and the Netherlands in 2005. The reforms should streamline decision-making, slim down the institutions and create the new posts of a permanent EU president and a foreign representative.

So far, Ireland is the only country expected to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, but pressure in the UK is mounting, with the Conservative opposition calling for a public vote.

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