The European Union is the result of one of those integration processes, the
origin of which goes back to the Schumann Declaration in the 1950’s. What
started as a group of States with some common norms is now an international
organization with legal personality that aspires to become a political union and is
legitimized to subscribe international agreements with other States and
international organizations.
Its consolidation in the WTO as a contracting party, in parallel with the
membership of its member States, presents some particular characteristics with
legal effects which have been analyzed in this paper.
It can be concluded from the study that the evolution of the European
integration process has contributed to a better participation of the EU in the
WTO, the Treaty of Lisbon being the greatest exponent of that contribution,
although some challenges regarding division of competencies or the legal nature
of mixed agreements remain unresolved.