The Lisbon treaty entered into force on 1 December 2009. In respect of the changes introduced under the Lisbon treaty:
a. The President of the European Council and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy are in office. b. The EU External Action Service has been in operation for a year, and the High Representative sent a progress report to EU Foreign Ministers on 22 December 2011 ahead of a full-scale review in 2013. The EAS supplements and complements, but does not replace, the UK diplomatic service. The Government have made clear where they believe the EAS should and should not act, in accordance with the treaties. c. The Judicial Appointments Panel is fully operational in issuing opinions on the nomination of appointments to the European Court of Justice. The Council Standing Committee on Internal Security, whose objective is to facilitate, promote, and strengthen co-ordination of operational actions between member states in the field of internal security, is also operational. d. The ordinary legislative procedure (formerly known as co-decision) has been introduced in agriculture and other areas; new procedures agreed for the annual budget of the EU; an accelerated process has been agreed for fining member states in infractions cases; and a new comitology decision adopted for scrutiny by member states of the Commission's exercise of its powers in relation to implementing and delegated acts are all bedding down. e. Decision-making on Justice and Home Affairs issues has moved from unanimity to qualified majority voting and the ordinary legislative procedure. As the UK has the right to ‘opt-in’ to decisions in this area, its effect on the UK has been limited. At the same time, qualified majority voting Council immediately became the norm, unless an exception was included in the treaties. f. The EU now has a single legal personality. g. The treaty gave legal effect to the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The Charter does not create new rights and principles—it brings existing rights together in one place. The protocol of the Lisbon treaty that refers to the charter does not extend the ability of any court to find that the UK's laws and practices are inconsistent with fundamental rights that it reaffirms. The European Commission has published a strategy on the effective implementation of the charter which includes many of the principles of better regulation used in the UK. h. Negotiations are ongoing on the terms of accession of the EU to the European convention on human rights.
i. The new procedure for national parliaments to send a reasoned opinion to the European Commission, where they consider a proposal does not uphold the principle of subsidiarity has already been used by both Houses. The Government are currently considering the recommendations of the Commons Procedures Committee on improving procedures for debates on reasoned opinions on subsidiarity. j. This Government have, by means of the European Union Act 2011, introduced a referendum lock on the use of any of the passerelles introduced in the Lisbon treaty which transfer power or competence from the UK to the EU, and stronger parliamentary controls on use of all of the passerelles now in the EU treaties, including those added at Lisbon. k. Proposals have been published by the EU institutions aimed at giving effect to the assurances given to the Irish and Czechs.