Where is the EU (going): three perspectives and three Integration issues

Abstract

The present text, assuming that the option of carrying on the European integration project, as well the option of Portugal to take part in it, are still fully valid, addresses the question “where are going (now)”on the basis of three actual and relevant issues regarding the survival of the EU which concern both the relationship between the EU and International Relations and the relationship between EU legal order and national legal orders, in particular the Portuguese legal order: the new Global Strategy for the EU’s Foreign and Security Policy, the new legal framework to protect EU’s fundamental values, especially the rule of law, and its recent application to a member State, as well as the functioning of the special procedure on excessive budgetary deficit which led to the application of “zero”sanctions to Portugal – enouncing some questions related to such topics as well as with the interrogation on the trend towards a “centralization” at the EU level that such topics may illustrate.