European constitutional political economy : enlargement and the crisis of institutional system

Abstract

The classical “integration process” has reached a critical point and constitutional limits, which make a qualitative change of importance in the system of community government indispensable. Our paper is based on an analysis of the constitutional choices of citizens and governments using a political-economic model, whose main conclusion centres on the need for breaking the central governments’ monopoly in the representation of national interests of the Union’s member states, both at a constitutional level (reform of treaties) and in the institutional balance (decision making).