(MADRID) - Spain's Senate approved the European Union's Lisbon Treaty on Tuesday, wrapping up the parliamentary ratification process of the text one month after it was rejected by voters in Ireland.

The upper chamber voted overwhelmingly in favour of the treaty, which seeks to streamline EU institutions as the bloc expands, with 232 votes in favour of ratification, six against and two abstentions.

Spanish King Juan Carlos must now sign the treaty and could do so later this week, which would make Spain the 23rd EU country to ratify the document.

The treaty must be ratified by all 27 EU member states to take effect, although the process was thrown into confusion by Irish voters' rejection of the document in a referendum in June.

The Senate vote had originally been planned for late September or early October but the main opposition Popular Party, together with the smaller Catalan nationalists CiU and Basque nationalist party PNV, requested that it be held before lawmakers take their summer break.

Spain's lower house of parliament voted in favour of ratifying the treaty on June 26 with 322 deputies in the 350-member chamber coming out in favour.

Both the ruling Socialist Party of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and the main opposition conservative Popular Party back the treaty.

In Brussels, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso welcomed the vote, saying the Spanish government and parliament had shown "unwavering support for the European project" and the treaty's ratification.

"I believe that today's approval of the treaty is a clear confirmation of the determination to move forward with the ratification process so that all member states express their positions during the ratification process," he said.

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