EU:European leaders pledged to tackle concrete problems facing the EU following yesterday's deal on the text of the EU reform treaty.
The early-morning agreement, which was greeted with group hugs and champagne by EU leaders, will streamline decision-making throughout the 27- member bloc and establish new policy priorities for the future.
The 270-page text will be signed by all EU leaders at a special ceremony in Lisbon, from which point it will be named the Lisbon Treaty.
"It's an important page in the history of Europe. Europe is now stronger, more confident and ready to face the challenges in the future," said Portuguese prime minister José Sócrates after brokering agreement between states at the EU summit.
British prime minister Gordon Brown said a "new declaration of principles" would be discussed at the next EU summit in December, which would enable Europe to move away from the institutional inward-looking debate of the past to tackle new issues.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy said more bluntly: "What we've been through in the last five months should remove anyone's taste for institutional issues."
Agreement on the new treaty follows six years of tortuous debate about the future structure of the union and the "crisis of confidence" created by the French and Dutch rejection of the EU constitution in 2005.
EU leaders' nerves were stretched to breaking point at a summit in June when Poland's president and prime minister, Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, invoked Germany's wartime past to push for more voting power at the Council of Ministers.
But despite last-minute reservations expressed by both Poland and Italy over elements of the treaty late on Thursday night at the summit, in the end the negotiations in Lisbon ran relatively smoothly to facilitate a deal.
In a final compromise, Italy won one extra MEP to enable it to retain the same number of seats as the UK. Poland also won a guarantee that a provision allowing small groups of states to delay EU decisions could only be overturned by unanimity. It has also been offered a permanent advocate general position at the European Court of Justice to put it on a par with the EU's five biggest members.
Bulgaria won the right to let it spell the name of the euro currency in the Cyrillic alphabet, against the wishes of the European Central Bank.
Austria also won a concession from the European Commission, which is suspending a legal action against the state for maintaining a quota system for foreign medical students.
The new treaty promises to introduce a raft of measures that will expand the competence of EU institutions and change how the union makes decisions. These include a new voting system for the Council of Ministers that is based more closely on relative population across the union and caps the total number of MEPs at 751.
It will also create the new posts of president of the European Council and a more powerful foreign policy chief, who will represent the commission and council.
The competition for the plum EU jobs is expected to hot up next year with the new treaty due to come into force in January 2008 if it is ratified by all member states.
Mr Sarkozy suggested that former British prime minister Tony Blair or veteran Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker would make excellent candidates for the new president's job. He also hinted at endorsing José Manuel Barroso for a second term as president of the European Commission.
Mr Brown said Mr Blair would be a "great candidate" for any big international job, adding to speculation that he is a frontrunner for the position of council president.
Other European politicians who could be in a position to lobby for the job include Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
One EU diplomat said yesterday that leaders from smaller countries often proved to be more acceptable candidates for these types of political positions.