Stephen Kinsella

Lisbon 2008: What was it, was did it mean, and why did it fail?    

This lecture traces the history of the EU’s development through its treaty structure from the Treaty of Rome to the Treaty of Nice, and spends a large portion of the lecture focusing on the Treaty of Lisbon, which the Irish electorate sought fit to reject on June 12, 2008.

This lecture will place Lisbon in context, and ask: where do we go from here? We’ll wrap up with some introductory notes on trade and trade creation. 

Click below for lecture notes, slides, handouts, a podcast of the lecture, and links. 

The EU is made up of a tissue of treaties which grant it supranational powers, for example, the EU acts as a customs union, and enforces environmental standards above the level of the nation state. The EU cannot tax and spend, however, and receives its income from donations from its member state of 1.27% of their GDP. 

The European coal and steel federation came into existence in 1951 following the Treaty of Paris. 

The first treaty (actually two treaties, more on that in the lecture) to be ratified by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany, was the Treaty of Rome. Rome established the EEC and EURATOM, an atomic power clearing house. From there up to the present day, the EU has expanded its set of competencies, and Lisbon is only the latest in this line. 

Watch the lecture below to see what Lisbon was, what it meant to be, and click the links to find out why it failed. 

Here are links to recommended readings from the course outline:

1. Sara Hageman, Lisbon Treaty: Democracy vs. Efficiency? Vox EU,21 June 2008
2. Kevin O Rourke, Why the Irish Said No: Thoughts on a second referendum Vox EU 26 June 2008
3. Daniel Gros, The Irish ‘No’: Plan B. Vox EU 16 June 2008
4. European Union, 2007. The Lisbon Treaty.