The European Union at the crossroads: a conceptual aspect

The article attempts to identify and analyze some of the most important, in the opinion of the author, problems which have an ever-increasing influence on the political integration of the European Union. The main attention is focused on such aspect as the diversity of the peoples of the region, with its national and historical, traditional, socio-cultural characteristics that are impossible to reduce to a common denominator. The author shows that, in contrast to the economy, which does not recognize state borders, political sphere responds poorly to the processes of globalization, since it is value-riddled, and permeated by socio-cultural, political and cultural origins of what the experience of the European Union gives a clear representation.