ABSTRACT
The European Union (EU) is a political system that makes decisions binding on states and their citizens and in which the authorities or national elected officials are not required to agree with each of them. Legitimation of the Union is then handicapped by the absence of clear political objectives. The lack of support from citizens is complicated by a tendency to reject European integration as a process affecting state sovereignty. The fundamental specificity of the EU is that it arises from the integration of relatively old and powerful nation-states which, for the most part, have a strong national identity and want to preserve their sovereignty. The EU's architecture and history were largely determined by this preoccupation: the need for respect of the nation-state sovereignty and the weighting of their respective influence in the various institutions. Tensions between national and European institutions also arise from the uncertainties surrounding the EU's very nature.
