The European Parliament is planning to become the first to ratify the new EU Lisbon Treaty that will be formally signed by the 27 EU heads of state and government on December 13 in the Portuguese capital.
A draft recommendation to approve the text will be presented to MEPs during their Strasbourg plenary in February.
Addressing a press conference in Brussels last Friday, MEPs Inigo Méndez de Vigo and Richard Corbett, both co-rapporteurs of the Lisbon Treaty, known also as the Reform Treaty, said they presented their plan and the draft recommendation to the EP's Constitutional Affairs Committee.
"The aim is to give a clear political signal in favour of the Lisbon Treaty just before the national parliaments start the ratification process", Mr Mendez de Vigo said.
The draft recommendation will propose to approve the new treaty "as a stable and sufficient framework to allow the European Union to operate in future with more efficiency and more democracy".
"We must tell the truth to the European citizens but we will recommend to Parliament to vote in favour as, if you evaluate the final results, it has more finer points than poorer points," Mr Corbett said.
Mr Méndez de Vigo said the new text has two major positive characteristics. It will put an end to the process of institutional reform started in 1992 with the Maastricht Treaty and will also help the European Union break the deadlock of the ratification process of the European Constitution project following the referendum in France and the Netherlands.
"All these are reasons enough for the European Parliament to want the Lisbon Treaty to enter into force before the next European elections in June 2009," he said.
All EU heads of state and government will gather in Lisbon on December 13 for a short but symbolic ceremony during which they will sign the new treaty. They will then proceed to Brussels in order to meet for the traditional end-of-year summit the following day.
All member states have to ratify the new treaty before it comes into effect in the beginning of 2009.