The European Union at the Crossroads: An Ever Closer Union or a Community of Sovereign States?

What kind of Union will there be after Brexit and potentially other exits? Will the European Union (EU) be able to survive its various crises, with immigration, democratic deficit, and its foreign and security policy, to name just a few? The crossroads we refer to are the decisions expected in 2017 on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, between the two concepts of: the EU as an evercloser union forming an integrated state, or as a (a community?) joint (multinational?) organization representing fully sovereign nation states. There will be four sections in this paper: The EU as a permanent international organization; Political forces within the EU; Getting out of the crises; and, Additional EU issues. By the time of the UACS Conference, some answers will have become clear. We seek now to discover what they will be. Macedonia and other candidate countries have the right to know more about the EU and its future