44 ANALYSIS AND AND PROSPECTIVE STUDIES CULTIVAR No. 34 The future of the Common Agricultural Policy Europe grows through law. This is the Roman hallmark of integration. The central elements of this matrix are: • regulatory harmonisation, which guarantees predictability and equality; • uniform common policies, which prevent fragmentation; • central regulatory authority, essential for the internal market; • legal incrementalism, which allows for gradual adaptation without disruption. 2.2. The Europe of Communities: subsidi arity, territorial plurality and multilevel governance The second matrix can be described as the Europe of Communities. It has its roots in the medieval Christian political and social tradition, marked by the coexistence of multiple authorities and jurisdictions (religious orders, free cities, universities, local powers), generating an ethos of distributed and relational governance. A deeply plural model of power. This plurality inspires the modern concept of subsidiarity, according to which public action should be exercised at the level closest to citizens and their communities. • Subsidiarity, now enshrined in Article 5 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU); • Multilevel governance, which integrates regions, municipalities, social and economic partners; • Cohesion and rural development policies, which compensate for asymmetries; • Territorial participation, which strengthens the democratic legitimacy of the Union. This is an idea of ‘European constitutional pluralism’, in which unity does not eliminate diversity, but presupposes it. It is this tradition that prevents the EU from becoming a centralised and homogeneous power, ensuring that integration respects and values the territorial and community wealth of its peoples. 2.3. The Europe of Sovereignties: democraticstates , national legitimacy and the market economy The third vertex is the Europe of Democratic Sovereignties. It is the matrix that derives from European political modernity, the nation state, territorial sovereignty (in the Westphalian sense) and representative democracy. European integration is only possible because the States remain the holders of ultimate Long before it became a legal concept, subsidiarity was everyday practice. Post-war European integration revived this intellectual heritage. The third vertex is the Europe of democratic sovereignties... European integratioins only possible because the States remain theholders of ultimate legitimacy... legitimacy, controlling the European Council and defining the budgetary frameworks. This matrix is also that of the balance between national power and the sharing Alcide De Gasperi, Konrad Adenauer and Robert Schuman are charismatic figures in European integration, who shared a vision that integration should not erase national identities and that its basis should be communities and concrete solidarity between territories. This matrix inspires the contemporary EU in many ways: of sovereignty, commonly described as a 'rational intergovernmental policy', where States continue to play a decisive role in the legislative process. This approach emphasises that the Union is fundamentally a functional construct, guided by democratic national interests. European integration has progressed because it has responded to the strategic interests of Member States and the demands of their democracies, confirming the
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