I intend to address these issues mainly from an economic perspective, leaving to the legal experts the task of outlining their legal-institutional vision in this regard. 1.
The new Treaty: innovation and continuity  I do not intend to discuss either the controversy or the difficulties encountered during the process of revising the Treaty, which took seven years: from the Presidency Conclusions of the Nice European Council at the end of 2000, through the draft European Constitution outlined in 2004 and the negative referenda on the Constitution in France and the Netherlands in 2005, to the signing of the Treaty of Lisbon in December 2008.