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Are we declining ? - A possible answer  , by Paolo V. Tonini
The perception of decline and inaction that is whistling
throughout Europe is growing one day after the other. Many
scholars and opinion leaders are discussing the international
role of the European Union. Should it be rendered as a declining
association of states or as a growing international power?
This article dares to cast some light on the debate and provide
a possible paradigm to approach the problem. The analysis will
inevitably lead to the conclusion that, at present, the EU is
not a power per se, and therefore cannot be held to decline or
to grow. Rather, the real and main actors underpinning the
functioning of the EU are its Member States (MS’s). Those MS’s
are the ones really facing the edge of oblivion, the ones whose
crisis and incapacity to act in a choral way are reflected in
the perceived inaction of the Union.  The aim is to highlight
that albeit the MS’s are the rea