The Nature and Form of the European Union

The main aim is to discuss the nature and form of the European Union understood as a polity, perhaps a state, and thereby to contribute to a better understanding of the dynamics of European integration. Taking the postulate of the EU already now constituting a state perhaps of a federal character, should provoke us to try to transcend the old borders within 'traditional' integration theory and analysis, often starting out from the assumptions such as the EU as 'more than an international organisation, less than a state', 'sui genereis' etc. phrases basically un-useful. Thus the topic of the section should be seen as an attempt to stimulate the debate on the nature of the EU. The scope of the section would be a mix of theory, method and perhaps case studies. Taking the starting-point that 'the EU is a state of federal character' begs for several analyses, first and foremost which nature and form the EU has, as well as how and why the integration takes place and how to analyse it. Other important questions to discuss would be the state of democracy and legitimacy (the two are not always synonymous) in the EU as a state; how governance and policymaking works in the EU as a federation, as well as the question of fiscal federalism; a last issue would be the security- and foreign-political role of the European state. The result of the section should in an ideal world be clarification as to the nature of the Union, a frame of analysis for analysing the Union and incitements for further research eventually the formation of a network/standing group.