New provisions in the treaty have already born fruit - ahead of ratification - in one key area of Union policy: employment.
The Luxembourg summit in December set in train a system of joint monitoring of memberstates' employment policies agreed at Amsterdam and heads of government backed guidelines for the reform of labour markets on whose implementation states will have to report annually.
Yet the very fact that the Union is proceeding with such measures ahead of ratification suggests that to a great extent the actual words added to the treaty are largely window-dressing to reassure the public that employment is top of the political agenda. The real difference now is political will, attributable in part to the election of social democratic governments in France and Britain.
Most of the legal competences required to engage in the more vigorous joint monitoring of employment policy are available in the EC Treaty's Article 103. It requires that member-states shall regard their economic policies as a matter of common concern and shall co-ordinate them in the Council of Ministers.
What the new treaty adds is a specific procedure of annual reporting and the ingredient the Irish Social Affairs Commissioner, Mr Padraig Flynn, views as most important, the right of the Commission to comment on member-states' performance and to make recommendations.
This, he argues, will give the sort of political teeth to the monitoring process which the successful monitoring of EMU monetary criteria has already seen.
The battle to put new text into the treaty on employment became one of the most contentious issues of the negotiations. Germany, in particular, regards the matter as one which is essentially a national responsibility and did its best to water down the guidelines.
It also sought to prevent the treaty allowing any EU spending on employment. In the end the treaty provides for limited "incentive measures". The general strategy outlined in the new treaty is one first set out by the former Commission President, Mr Jacques Delors, and then endorsed at the Essen summit in 1994 - it emphasises the need to focus on training and flexibility in order to enhance the employment potential of growth. Co-ordination will be provided by a new Employment Committee of ministers.
In a different but related respect, the treaty has far more dramatic implications for Britain than for other member-states - the ending of the UK opt-out on social policy agreed at Maastricht. Now, courtesy of the election of the Blair government, decisions on working conditions, health and safety, hours of work, consultation and information and equality at work will apply to all 15 memberstates.
Ireland secured a specific treaty reference to the fight against social exclusion. Agreement should allow resumption of funding to the Union's experimental poverty programmes, held up by a British legal challenge. Access to education and lifelong learning and the promotion of cultural diversity also get a mention in the treaty for the first time.
