What will become of the EU?” “

United States of Europe, European Federation and political union: what will become of the European Union? On this point there is zero consensus. Worse still, it appears that political leaders share the unspoken agreement that reaching a consensus to this regard is unnecessary. In all likelihood all stakeholders consider it a useless experiment. Or they may fear that the controversies that may ensue could slow down or deadlock ongoing processes. And even if Europeans agreed on a given model the picture would be the same: each one of these models requires different modes of implementation. In fact, world countries feature a large variety of government models and constitutional systems. This is true for the past as is it today. Reaching an agreement on the finalities of European integration has always been the major problem of integration policies. As time went by, as EU enlargement came to include 27 countries, the problem grew bigger and bigger. Each new Member Country brings with it new ideas and expectations on the future shaping of the common home that add on to pre-existing ideas and expectations. Harmonization is needed in order to achieve joint consensus, which appears. This may seem impossible, that’s why the question, raised on many occasions, has remained unanswered.  Thus the European Union is a project characterized by an open-end process. And inasmuch as it is a process, the European Union is also a building yard whereby major efforts aim at reinforcing its foundations and completing the missing parts of its structure. As relates to the geographic dimension of that project, i.e. the Union’s borders, the lack of political will coupled by the inability to identify EU finalities are self-evident. The EU’s internal legal system is yet incomplete because of a want of consensus on its finalities, and for the lack of efforts to reaching such consensus, while its external shape became a principle of European integration. The consequences of this situation are more direly felt in the ongoing economic and financial crisis. In fact the incompleteness of the European Union prevents the optimal performance of its political system, owing to a want of crisis management tools, which would naturally be available in a soundly established political system. In recent years, with visibly frantic efforts, EU institutions have gradually set up these tools for the financial and monetary sector, introducing them temporarily in the existing system in order to cope with the consequences of the crisis, or to prevent the recurrence of the mistakes that led to the crisis itself. Finally, disagreements on the purpose of the European Union risk causing the collapse of the building blocks that over the years, and with major effort, contributed to its development. Not all Member States participate in all of its initiatives. Member States have the possibility of breaking away from given EU procedures when the latter are considered too burdensome, namely, if they follow a direction that does not correspond to the common understanding of the future shape of the Union.The possibility of “opting out” is a logical consequence of the unsolved question on its finalities, as reiterated by a large number of Member States in areas pertaining to integration. Indeed, the contract provides for “differentiated integration” and for “enhanced cooperation” between a number of States in a specific policy area where not everyone wants or can afford to cooperate. This maintains the fiction of a unit, lost long since.Of 27 EU Member States currently only 17 are part of the European Monetary Union, 25 participate in the “fiscal compact”, 23 in the Euro Plus Pact, 25 belong to the “area of freedom, security and justice”, 23 take part in common security and defence policies, only 24 have adopted the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The list does not end here.The risk of disintegration that such development entails is under everyone’s eyes to see. And it can only be curbed via a strong joint effort on the part of those Member States that are willing to remain loyal to the founding mission of the Community and to continue to work for an ever closer union among the peoples and countries of Europe. It’s time to resume attempts for a European Constitution that failed a decade ago.