Sincere Cooperation and Respect for National Identities

This chapter explores the connections between two pivotal principles of the European legal order, namely the principle of sincere cooperation, on the one hand, and the principle of respect for national identities, on the other. After analysing the functions performed by the two principles in the European legal order, through the lens of the ECJ case law, I try to show why it is important two study the tension between those two principles, which also the Lisbon Treaty wants to tie together into the same article 4 TEU, revising the legal context of the pre-Lisbon Treaty version. It is submitted that the duty of loyal cooperation, mainly addressed to the Member States, represented the unitary twist, while the duty of respect for national identity, mainly addressed to the Union, represented the pluralist twist of the European integration process. Some concluding remarks will be unravelled on the possible new balance and new wording of Art. 4 TEU provided by the Lisbon Treaty, which could proffer a less integrationist-biased concept of the principle of sincere cooperation, tempered by the principle of respect for national identity.