Lisbon Treaty

The Lisbon Treaty is an international agreement that organizes cooperation between the member states of the European Union (EU) across multiple policy fields. It lays the legal foundation for European integration, identifying which issue areas are for supranational policy cooperation and which areas are excluded. Signed on December 13, 2007, the Lisbon Treaty entered into force on December 1, 2009.

For those interested in higher education policy developments in Europe, the Lisbon Treaty is relevant because the implementation of its articles introduced by earlier treaties has led to a robust set of EU higher education law despite the limited treaty basis for action in this sector. To start with, the Lisbon Treaty demarcates education policy as a supplementary competence for the EU. What this means is ...