Conclusions and Recommendations

Abstract

AbstractThe EU is more than an international organization but less than a federal state. As we have seen through the legal analysis of this research and through empirical evidence, EU Member States do not fully trust the supranational system when it comes to delicate issues of national politics. There is, therefore, a fundamental tension between the value of speaking with one voice (also recognized by EU Member States) in external trade relations and the desire of EU Member States to keep as much autonomy as possible in areas of political sensitivity. So it might simply be unrealistic to strive for a unitary character of EU external trade relations. In this sense, Weiler has underlined that the EC “may not speak with one voice but increasingly speaks like a choir.” This explains why we have shared competence, which creates complications: “[c]e n’est pas la un gouvernement fédéral, c’est un gouvernement national incomplete. Ainsi on a trouvé une forme de gouvernement qui n’était precisement ni nationale ni fédérale; mais on s’est arrête la, et le mot nouveau qui doit exprimer la chose nouvelle n’existe point encore.” EU citizens do not seem to trust the supranational level either. As an example, we have analyzed the Lisbon Treaty. Therefore, the name of the game is democracy: EU citizens do not want a centralized EU federation for the time being.