On July 9, 2007, the Brussels office authored an Alert Memorandum entitled, “The political agreement on the ’Reform Treaty’ that is to replace the proposed EU Constitution.” Following the rejection in 2005 by French and Dutch voters of the proposed EU Constitution, the institutional reform process had come to a halt. On June 23, 2007, the Council of the European Union decided not to proceed with the adoption of the Constitution, but agreed on a “Reform Treaty” instead. The Council adopted a detailed “mandate” for an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) that is to finalize a draft Treaty for approval and ratification by each of the 27 Member States. The hope is to complete the IGC by October 2007 and to obtain ratification by June 2009.