Though ratified by a majority of the Member States, the Constitutional Treaty failed to enter into force. Following its rejection in referenda in France and the Netherlands on 29 May and 1 June 2005 respectively the ratification process continued in some Member States, but others put planned parliamentary debates and referenda on ice. Faced with this institutional crisis, the European Council, meeting on 16-17 June 2005, called for a year-long ‘period of reflection’. Eventually, a way out of the crisis was found under the German Presidency, when the European Council, in June 2007, agreed on a detailed mandate for an Intergovernmental Conference to draft a 'Reform Treaty' incorporating many of the provisions of the now officially abandoned Constitutional Treaty, but dropping its most controversial features. The Intergovernmental Conference concluded its work under the Portuguese Presidency, reaching agreement on the text of the Reform Treaty and its annexed Protocols and Declarations on 18 October 2007. The new Treaty is to be signed in Lisbon on 13 December 2007. It is subject to ratification by all 27 Member States in accordance with their national constitutional requirements, and is intended to come into force before the European Parliament elections in mid-2009.