European Union leaders will gather in Lisbon today and at noon sign the new EU treaty.

The Lisbon Treaty, considered to be a milestone in the history of the EU, is the first to cater for an enlarged Union and is the result of years of discussions and haggling between EU member states and a forced change of plans following the defeat over the proposed EU Constitution, which had been rejected by France and The Netherlends in popular referendums.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Foreign Minister Michael Frendo are expected to sign the treaty on behalf of Malta at today's ceremony.

The signing will kick off another round of ratification procedures as the treaty will only enter into force if all the EU member states will individually ratify the text through a parliamentary or popular vote. So far, only Ireland is expected to hold a referendum.

Malta has not yet announced when it intends to ratify the treaty although this has to be done during the course of 2008 in time for the next European Parliament elections in mid-2009.

In Strasbourg yesterday, the presidents of the three main EU institutions, José Socrates, on behalf of the Council, José Manuel Barroso, for the Commission, and Hans Gert Poettering, for the European Parliament, signed and solemnly proclaimed the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, thus opening the way for the signing of the Lisbon Treaty.

The charter, which will form part of the treaty, will give European citizens a catalogue of rights legally binding on EU institutions and bodies and on member states when implementing EU law.

Mr Barroso said that, by signing and proclaiming the charter, the presidents of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission were publicly signalling their indelible wish to make it legally binding on the Union's institutions.

The charter will complement other international instruments such as the European Convention on Human Rights, to which the EU is also likely to become a party.