This candidacy has been considered for more than forty years, yet it only became concrete during the recent years, when the UE defined their accession criteria, and the planned negotiations starting in autumn 2005. Turkey’s attitude remained ambiguous for a long time : even though their choice of westernization is ancient and long-lasting, their efforts to get closer to the EU were limited and equivocal. Turkey seemed to want to participate only at its own conditions. It is only at the turn (...)  lire suite

The European Constitution marks a new step in European construction; this summons a reflection on the latter, especially on the time of its beginnings. To yield on the past allows highlighting a certain number of permanent features in the European construction process : a tendency to confuse ideas, between the European project and intern policy issues, as well as the existence of a deleterious political climate, have not managed to prevent a true political project to come to light. This (...)  lire suite

Many scenarios could lead to a «deconstruction» of Europe : external shocks which do not appear to be very likely (such as a come back to the scenario of the 1930’s or the «clash of civilizations»); decreasing identification of European citizens to an even more enlarged Union, based only on consensus and rules, but less and less able to let a «European democracy» emerge; unhooking of great nations like Germany or France, which could be tempted by a more national course; growing tensions (...)  lire suite

The European Union with its 25 Member States constitutes already an unprecedented success and a guarantee for a victorious future perspective. This fact, however, is leading also a considerable complexity of problems, as well as tensions and troubles in the big European family. A serious reason for these problems is the presence in the EU of at least two different socio-political, economic and cultural realities - the one of the Western Europe and the other of Central and Eastern Europe. (...)  lire suite

The Artemis operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo binds two international organizations together (the United Nations Organization, the European Union), as well as one of the member States (France), as a pillar of multinational action. Because of this, it is an unseen triptych. The success of this three-head hydra resides in a strict separation of tasks between the three actors : while the United Nations took care of asking for and giving capacity to the Artemis operation, the (...)  lire suite

The construction of a large-scale State which is at once geographic, demographic and economic is at the heart of the European political project. The underlying hypothesis, considered as fact by the federalists, is that a very large country is always more efficient economically, militarily and politically than one of much smaller size. Nevertheless, for several decades, we have observed a general shrinking in the average size of all centrally managed organizations, in the private as well as (...)  lire suite

International Ethics, Law and Politics are generally considered separate and independent spheres, almost acting as three autonomous branches. In this article, I develop arguments which demonstrate that, in reality, the international realm is a symbiosis between these three domains. The point at which they meet and fuse will be referred to here as the “Global Standard of Civilization”. Next, I demonstrate that a meaningful analysis of international politics needs to seriously consider (...)  lire suite

This candidacy has been considered for more than forty years, yet it only became concrete during the recent years, when the UE defined their accession criteria, and the planned negotiations starting in autumn 2005. Turkey’s attitude remained ambiguous for a long time : even though their choice of westernization is ancient and long-lasting, their efforts to get closer to the EU were limited and equivocal. Turkey seemed to want to participate only at its own conditions. It is only at the turn (...)  lire suite

The prospect of a European Federation is not very popular among the different peoples of the European Union, but nonetheless this federation will most likely materialize. The key elements of a federal system are in place: an institutional pact between the member states and their populations; a two-level hierarchical structure; a double citizenship, national and European; and the implementation at the European Union level of major federal tasks. What is the decisive factor which drives this (...)  lire suite

This article examines the causes of the disappointing state of affairs after ten years of reform in European institutions, from Maastricht to Nice. This condition could be attributed to the weakening of the role of the notion of federalism, which has ceased to structure the European negotiations, and has become more a topic for academic debate. This withdrawal of the federal cause is related to two errors on the part of its members. First, they thought that the federative effect of the (...)  lire suite