This course examines the political and institutional framework and the functioning of the European Union. It analyses the role of the main institutional organs of the Union, emphasizing the role of inter-institutional interdependence, the significance of outside interventions and the relations between the member states and the Union. Its main objective is to study the dynamics of European integration in the passage of time, in order to examine whether the current “system” is indeed a homogeneous political system, to define its form and characteristics and to assess its future evolution. This approach allows us to compare the main characteristics of the EU political system with the corresponding characteristics of national political systems in order to define and explain the ensuing differences and to better understand the unique nature of the European Union.

COURSE MODULES

1. Conceptualizing the EU
2. Prinicples, aims, membership and competences of the EU
3. Theories of European integration
4. Supranational institutions of the EU
5. Intergovermental institutions of the EU
6. Law-making in the EU
7. The EU in the era of multiple crises: economic governance
8. The EU in the era of multiple crises: the EU budget
9. The EU in the era of multiple crises: foreign and security policy
10. The EU in the era of multiple crises: overview and prospects
11. Greece in the EU

Upon the completion of this course, students are expected to:

• aquire a comperhensive view of the institutional system and function of the EU
• understand the particularities and the multilevel nature of the EU political system
• be able to follow and interpret political and economic developments in the EU in the light of the inter-dependencies between the national political system, the EU political system and the international environment
• possess the necessary intellectual baggage in order to study particular aspects of the institutional process of the EU and/ or examine specific forms of governance with a significant European dimension

Course Bibliography (Eudoxus)
Γ. Ανδρέου, Η Ευρωπαϊκή Διακυβέρνηση στην Εποχή των Πολλαπλών Κρίσεων, Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Κριτική, 2022.
Ν. Μαραβέγιας & Θ. Σακελλαρόπουλος(επιμ.), Ελλάδα και Ευρωπαϊκή Ενοποίηση. Η Ιστορία μιας πολυκύμαντης σχέσης. Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Διόνικος, 2018.

Additional bibliography for study
I. Bache, S. Bulmer, S. George and O. Parker (eds.), Politics in the European Union (Fourth Edition). New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Σ. Βέρνυ και Α. Κόντης (επιμ.), Ευρωπαϊκή Ολοκλήρωση – Οι πολλαπλές κρίσεις και οι προκλήσεις του μέλλοντος. Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Παπαζήση, 2017.
S. Hix, To πολιτικό σύστημα της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης. Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Μεταίχμιο, 2009.
N. Μαραβέγιας (επιµ.), Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση.: Δημιουργία, Εξέλιξη, Προοπτικές. Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Κριτική, 2016.
N. Nugent, Πολιτική και διακυβέρνηση στην Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση. Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Σαββάλας, 2012.
A. Πλιάκος, Δίκαιο Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης. Tόμος 1, περί θεσμών. Aθήνα: Εκδόσεις Oικονομικού Πανεπιστήμιου Aθηνών, 2006.
H. Wallace, M. Pollack, C. Roederer-Rynning and A. Young (eds.) Policy-Making in the European Union (8th Edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.