L’ UE du vingt-et-unième siècle : La fin des idéaux fédéralistes des Pères fondateurs ?

Abstract :

The EU has as its motto “United in Diversity.“ To what extent does reality reflect this federal ideal as inscribed in the European treaties ? Although the Lisbon Treaty introduces reforms and legitimizes processes that reinforced the federal character of the European project, it remains difficult at this stage to define the EU as a social and political structure in which power rests on a fragile equilibrium between unity and diversity as well as on a struggle to maintain it. If unity has been reinforced through successive institutional reforms, there is still disequilibrium in favor of diversity.