Abstract
The European Union currently needs an in-depth reform of its institutions to modernize the economy of the euro zone, fight against climate change, efficiently manage migrations flows, reduce poverty, and to tackle the other most serious contemporary issues, and propagate on the international scene the values of justice, freedom and security that have so far guided the European development. In the history of EU, waves of enlargement have always preceded the institutional changes necessary to allow efficient decision-making processes in the context of an enlarged community. In other words, enlargement has often been perceived as a step forward, that would leave EU institutions with no choice but to deepen the integration of the member states. Thus, after 10 new member states joined the EU in 2004, the EU tried to reach an agreement on the content of an institutional reform that had become necessary because of the growing difficulties in speaking with one voice and making decisions for 25 states, with an institutional framework designed for 15. The result was the project of a European constitution that France and the Netherlands turned down in 2005.
