See also: Ireland surrenders: what will Klaus do?
Every single day, I am being surprised how many people ask me what that Treaty of Lisbon is. And how many of them admit that they couldn't say even a few simple words about it to their kids or grandparents. And all of them add: why don't you explain it to us in simple terms? The treaty is not simple but I will try to do it, anyway.
1. The European Union (EU, formerly the European Communities, EC, and the European Economic Community, EEC, before that) is defined by treaties signed by the member states. These treaties are commonly named after the place where they were signed. The first treaties were the so-called Treaties of Rome in 1957. So far the latest one is the Treaty of Nice from 2001.
4. In the context of the German EU presidency in the first half of 2007, Chancellor Ms Merkel succeeded in convincing the member states (including the Czech Republic, represented by prime minister Mr Topolánek) that the only "defect" of the Constitutional Treaty was purely: