L'UE du Vingt-et-Unième Siècle: La fin des idéaux fédéralistes des Pères fondateurs?

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]