Viewpoints: Lisbon Treaty impact

All but a few of the EU's 27 member states have ratified the Lisbon Treaty, which is aimed at streamlining EU institutions.

But the controversial treaty will not come into force unless all of them do so - and it still has to run the gauntlet of a second Irish referendum later in 2009. Irish voters rejected it in June 2008. No other country put the treaty to a referendum.

Here, as part of a series of viewpoints on EU issues, two European think-tank experts argue for and against the treaty.