Costituzionalismo europeo e competizione sistemica : la transizione geopolitica dell'Unione e la questione della legittimazione democratica

This article examines the position of the European Union in an age of systemic competition, addressing the question of whether the EU can evolve into a post-Westphalian model of political organization in a context marked by the crisis of multilateralism and by the growing interconnection between trade, security, and industrial policy. Drawing on the Draghi Report on European competitiveness, the Letta Report on the future of the single market, and Andrea Manzella’s reflections on “implicit federalism,” the paper develops a constitutional reading of European competitiveness as an issue concerning the political form of the Union and the resilience of shared sovereignty. It argues that the geopolitical transformation of the international order and the weaponization of economic interdependence compel the Union to strengthen its capacity for collective action in strategic sectors such as innovation, industrial policy, and economic security. Within this framework, pragmatic and implicit federalism are examined as possible pathways for institutional evolution even without formal Treaty revision, through the flexible use of existing legal bases and mechanisms of differentiated integration. However, the article contends that the functional expansion of EU powers cannot indefinitely bypass the question of democratic legitimacy. The long-term sustainability of European integration ultimately depends on maintaining a balance between enhanced capacity for action and the consolidation of a politically recognizable and democratically grounded basis of authority.