ABSTRACT
These words pronounced by Robert Schuman 59 years ago are illustrative of the development of the European Union, which has been the result of a constant process of experiment and compromises between different interests and preferences. Given this course of development, the institutional structure of the EU is, in a certain way, complex, opaque and imperfect. Thus, it is not easy to understand how the European Union functions, and even less to evaluate it from a prescriptive perspective.
