The homogeneity clause in the Treaty on European Union and the European Constitution

This paper tackles the homogeneity principle foreseen in Article 6.1 of the Treaty on European Union and in Article I-2 of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, both provisions being interpreted in conjuction. Though in both cases the homogeneity constitutes a juducial principle, in Article I-2 of the European Constitution there is a new recognition of the homogeneity principle in a programmatical and axiological nature, whose aim is to regulate the future behavioors of both the European Union and of the members states, and as a result, the dynamics of European integration is accentuated. This way, the homogeneity principle does not limit itself to stating the existing affinities between the diverse parts of the European Union, but it has a normative content that it imposes on the Union and the members states, as a characterization of their respective legal orders according to certain elements defined by the European Constitution. In any case, one neither can confuse homogeneity with "European sovereignty", it is also not possible to consider the principle of "supremacy" of European Law as equivalent to "European sovereignty": in effect, in spite of the great integration foreseen by the European Constitution, the member states have not lost their capacity (subjectivity) of International Law, that is to say, "European supremacy" is not an expression of hierarchical structuring of the relations between the Union and the member states, but a new stage of reinforcement of the supranational link that translates a major consolidation of respect for European Law. And, in this reinforcement of the supranational link, the homogeneity principle plays a fundamental role.