Pourquoi l'Europe ne ressemble-t-elle pas à ce que voudraient les économistes?

The formation of the European Convention leads to revisit the ends and the principles of the European Union. This articles confronts insights from the economic theory of federalism and lessons from the history of European integration. It points out significant convergence between the normative and the positive approaches, but also differences. This provides a basis for examining whether Europe has gone « too far », as claimed by recent economic papers, or whether economic theory is having difficulty in making sense of some aspects of European integration. Classification JEL : F0, H77