ABSTRACT
Article 7 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) states that '[t]he Union shall ensure consistency between its policies and activities, taking all of its objectives into account and in accordance with the principle of conferral of powers'. Consistency is the most developed element of Article 7 TFEU, owing to its embedded role in EU external relations in particular. While the understanding of Article 7 works well for thinking about the premises of consistency and conferred powers in particular, it remains less obviously useful for finding a way through the well-meaning but impractical commitment to taking all Union objectives into account as part of the wider task encoded in the provision. If the accommodation and practice of difference are admitted as more central and sustainable than peripheral and temporary features of European Union integration, the role of consistency in the more complicated frameworks and structures that inevitably result becomes critical.
