Europe's three vertices: towards a new strategic (im)balance 45 idea that ‘Europe will always be the sum of its democracies’. This principle materialised in (and from) the process of German unification, which was accepted only insofar as it preserved political balances, borders and alliances, leading France and Germany to negotiate a compromise (the creation of the European Union and the single currency) that reconciled national sovereignty and European integration. This matrix continues to be decisive in the distribution of power in the EU and, through this vertex, it ensures: • the democratic legitimacy of national governments (Member States control the Council and the European Council); • the contractual nature of the European budget (the European budget depends on intergovernmental agreements); • the balance between the market and social protection (economic policy is conditioned by instruments such as the European Semester); • the persistence of national identities. It is this dimension that prevents the EU from becoming a technocracy disconnected from national democracies. 2.4. The cross-cutting role of the European Parliament Unlike the Council, where States are represented as political units, the Parliament is organised into transnational political families that reflect regional sensibilities, including rural, peripheral and community ones. For the Sovereignty vertex, the European Parliament plays a paradoxical role, since it is born out of national democracies but acts as a moderating force among States. On the one hand, it reinforces the democratic legitimacy of European decisions, and on the other, it balances the influence of national governments. The Parliament is thus simultaneously the guarantor of the democratic legitimacy of integration, a symbol of plurality, and a counterweight to technocratic centralism. Its evolution, especially after the Treaty of Lisbon, with the strengthening of its budgetary and legislative powers, has become essential to maintaining the balance between the three vertices. 3. The CAP as a structu arl pillar of the European model The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is perhaps the clearest and most solid example of successful European integration. It was born out of the vision of moderate leaders, The CAP is perhaps the clearest and most solid example of successful European integration. Paul-Henri Spaak, Sicco Mansholt and Edgard Pisani, and was consolidated by the political impetus of Jacques Delors. From the outset, the CAP translated in an exemplary manner the balance between the three structural vertices of the European project, the Europe of Law, the Europe of Communities and the Europe of Sovereignties. In this tripartite framework, the European Parliament has historically played a unique role as the only institution that spans all three vertices, while never coinciding entirely with none. At the Law vertex, the EU Parliament acts as a complement to the democratic legitimacy of the European legal order, by participating as a structural co-legislator, ensuring that European regulatory authority is accompanied by democratic legitimacy. At the Communities vertex, the EU Parliament is the institutional expression of European territorial diversity Paul-Henri Spaak described the CAP as the first truly European policy, based on the solidarity of peoples. The Europe of Law expressed itself from the outset in the creation of common standards, the single market and the Common Market Organisations (CMOs), which unified rules, standards and guarantees. The regulatory architecture (intervention prices, health rules, conditionality, direct payments) has evolved, but has
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