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Since 2005, all continental meetings end on the need to strengthen the African Union’s executive. But the question is: which shape can it take on? Two positions are debated: on one hand, an immediate move to federalism; on the other, a gradual approach to this target while preserving a maximal degree of sovereignty for each State. What is at stake is the conception of the future African 'Union' itself.Delphine Lecoutre is a Ph.D student at the University Paris I-Panthéon-Sorbonne and attached to the Addis Abeba University Institute of Ethiopian Studies (IES) and to the French Center for Ethiopian Studies (Centre français des études éthiopiennes, CFEE) in Addis Abeba. She works on the African Union Peace and Security Council.