The course aims to introduce students to the study of European integration from a historical and theoretical perspective. First, it examines the evolution of the European project and the ideas on the unification of the continent that were developed in the past. Τhen, it stuies the process of formation of the ΕC/EU after the 2nd World War and up until the present. Furthermore, the course analyzes the process of European integration both through the prism of the theories of regional integration and through the specific steps taken by the Union. Finally, the course introduces students to the European institutions and their evolution within the European political system.

The lectures are structured as follows:

1. The concept of regional integration before the 20th century – Kant. Proudhon. The inter-war plans for cooperation between European people. European federation in the resistance movements. The Manifesto of Ventotene.
2. Factors that contributed to the post-war integration. The birth of federal movements after World War II. The Congress of The Hague. The Council of Europe.
3. The creation of the European Coal and Steel Community. The innovative character of supranational integration.
4. Efforts to set up a Political Union. The European Defence Community.
5. The birth of the EEC Its objectives and institutional framework. The consolidation of the Community in the 1960s. The conflict between supranational and intergovernmental approaches. The Luxembourg compromise.
6. The EEC during the 1970s. The first enlargement. The institutional and political developments of the 1980s. The Draft Treaty of 1984. The Single European Act. The Single Market.
7. Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Treaty of Maastricht. The creation of the European Union. Institutional characteristics and policies.
8. The deepening and the «communitarization» of the EU. The Treaties of Amsterdam and Nice. The enlargement towards Eastern Europe.
9. The «constitutionalisation» of the EU. The Constitutional Treaty and the Lisbon Treaty.
10. The EU in crisis.
11. The main theories of regional integration. Federalism. Intergovernmentalism.
12. Functionalism and neo-functionalism.
13. Contemporary theories of regional integration. Liberal intergovernmentalism. Multilevel governance.

Upon successful completion of this course, the students will:
– Have full knowledge of the history of European integration,
– Know the basic elements of the various stages of EU integration after WW II
– Be able to analyze sufficiently the political developments of the EU.
– Be able to to understand the current political reality of the EU based on the knowledge of the past.

Final examination (70% of the final grade) and partial tests during the semester (15% of the final grade each)