ABSTRACT
The European Union is a political system whose contours are uncertain. It provides for the joint exercise of limited powers and respect for state sovereignty. The third form is the federation whereby states form a union and abandon most of their sovereignty to a political system which follows the canons of parliamentary democracy. The Lisbon Treaty proposes a clarified typology of competences and gives detailed information on the principles of subsidiarity, proportionality and attribution (conferral), but if we look closely, it does not alter the previous situation. National leaders, who sought above all to promote their respective economic, trade and security interests, agreed to participate in the European initiative providing that it would be limited to areas free of conflicts of interest and would not be an attack on the most symbolic elements of national sovereignty.
