French senators and members of the parliament attend a congress for a revision of France's constitution to allow the new Lisbon Treaty, the EU's reform treaty, to be ratified by France at the Versailles castle, near Paris, Feb. 4, 2008. The revision was ratified on Monday. (Xinhua/Song Lidong) Photo Gallery>>>

    BUCHAREST, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Romanian parliament ratified the EU Reform Treaty on Monday evening with 387 votes in favor, 1 vote against and 1 abstention.

    Romania has thus become one of the first counties to ratify the new European Treaty.

    According to the parliament sources, independent deputy Lavinia Sandru voted against the Treaty, while Conservative deputy Dragos Dimitriu abstained from voting.

    Romanian parliament gathered on Monday afternoon to discuss and ratify the EU Reform Treaty, signed by the heads of states and governments in the 27 EU member countries.

    The EU treaty was designed to replace the constitution scuppered in Dutch and French referendums in 2005 and end years of diplomatic wrangling over reform of the bloc's institutions.

    All 27 members need to ratify the treaty, meaning that even a small member country could topple the treaty.

    According to the schedule, the treaty signed in Lisbon must be ratified individually by member states before it can come into effect, as planned, in 2009.

    Like the rejected constitution, the treaty proposes a new president's post and a European foreign policy supremo.

    It also includes a European charter of fundamental human and legal rights, which Britain and Poland have refused to make binding. 

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