A charter designed to transform the 27 countries and half a billion people of the European Union into a more unified and powerful global player passed its last major hurdle Tuesday and looks set to become law within weeks.

Once that happens, the Lisbon Treaty will allow more policy decisions by majority rather than unanimous votes at European summits. Those policies would then increasingly be shaped by the elected parliaments of each nation and the European Parliament, which currently has little say.

EU leaders say such new voting rules are needed to promote stronger policies in combating cross-border crime, terrorism and eco-logical threats.

Projecting this more decisive EU abroad would be a new fixed-term president - in place of a decades-old ...