Alla ricerca del pilastro mancante: prospettive costituzionali sull'Europa della difesa

This essay retraces some of the most important knots in the decade-long debate about the establishment of a common defence at the European level. To do so, it focuses on the long-term consequences of the failure to ratify the EDC Treaty in the 1950s. From the vantage point of constitutional law, three points deserve special attention: the form of government of European defence, the role of common defence as a catalyst for achieving political integration, and the tight, ever-complex relation between the European Communities and the European Union, on one side, and the Atlantic Alliance, on the other side. After focusing on the current legal framework as resulting from the Lisbon Treaty, the essay provides an analysis of the constitutional challenges with which the idea of European defence is confronted with in an age of polycrisis, ranging from the withdrawal of the United Kingdom to American disengagement from NATO.