The European Union (EU) continues to play an important role in the UK’s trading relations with its European neighbours and the rest of the world. As well as monitoring international economic relations - in which the House of Commons Business and Enterprise Select Committee plays a key role - Parliament continues to ratify changes to the governance of the EU.
Treaty of Lisbon
The Treaty of Lisbon, for example, was an international agreement signed in Lisbon on 13 December 2007 which changed the workings of the EU, amending both the Treaty on European Union (Maastricht) and the Treaty establishing the European Community (Rome). The Lisbon Treaty amends the latter to become the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
Although most Member States, including the UK, have ratified the Lisbon Treaty (the UK Parliament via the European Union (Amendment) Act 2008), its future remains uncertain.