20 years of European journalism & history

Barroso: An insider's
the year
2007
guide to the Lisbon Treaty
Jose Manuel Barroso was European Commission president before and after the
Lisbon Treaty entered into force in December 2009. He discusses how it impacted
his work and the broader implications for an expanding European Union.
By Nikolaj Nielsen
When Gordon Brown as UK prime
minister signed the Lisbon Treaty
in December 2007, he did so in a
quiet room with only a handful of
other people present.
Among them was Jose Manuel
Barroso, who as European
Commission president at the time,
had helped usher in the new treaty
which overhauled the European
Union and its institutions.
Barroso said Brown deliberately
arrived late to eschew the official
signing ceremony and group
photo with the other heads of state
and government at Lisbon's 15thcentury
Jerónimos Monastery.
'At the end of the day
Europe is all of us,
Europe is just not
Brussels,' said Jose
Manuel Barroso
Photo: European
Commission
"In fact, he signed very discreetly the treaty with
me and one or two other witnesses and without
the media. For me the fact that Gordon Brown,
someone who may be considered pro-European
was not ready to sign publicly the Lisbon Treaty,
that is a clear, clear signal of what could come later,"
said Barroso.
the 2016 referendum that has since led to years of
protracted and painstaking negotiations between
London and Brussels.
Barroso first became European Commission
president in 2004, the same year 10 states joined
the union.
The Lisbon Treaty forms the constitutional basis of
the European Union, amending two other treaties to
meld cross-border rights and freedoms. It entered
into force at the end of 2009.
Among the novelties it introduced at the institutional
level was a more powerful European Parliament, a
new European Commission foreign policy branch,
and a new European Council presidency.
But it also included a new option for a member state
to leave - which the UK subsequently did, following
He was then reappointed in 2009, allowing him to
experience the impact of the Lisbon Treaty on the
EU and its institutions first hand.
The German EU presidency, in the lead up to
the treaty's signing, had helped create a political
momentum, following the Berlin declaration over the
2007 summer months.
But negative referenda results in France and the
Netherlands had initially threatened to derail it.
Ireland was also at odds.
18 — EUOBSERVER ANNIVERSARY 2020