The essay aims to bring attention to the nature of the present European crisis, seen in particular through a vantage and informed observation point as that one offered by the annual State of the Union speeches by the Presidents in office of the European Commission. Coming to fix as the main point of relapse the one represented by the gap, in terms of consistency and credibility, between "process" and "project" of unification, in the face of a growing dissent by citizens with regard to the current (especially political-institutional) European reality. Then pausing to consider anomalies, paradoxes and problems concerning the way in which the Union (formerly Community) came to take shape, on the side of both the methods of action and the relationship between decision-making method and decision-making power. Finally, focusing on the problems to be solved to give the Union a more coherent and recognizable structure as political and legal community, respectful of its own values, fundamental principles and objectives